Trump again calls Jews who support Democrats disloyal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump repeated his claim Wednesday that American Jews who vote for Democrats are “disloyal,” refusing to back away from language that has been widely criticized as anti- Semitic and anti- democratic.
“If you vote for a Democrat, you’re being disloyal to Jewish people and you’re being very disloyal to Israel,” Mr. Trump told reporters on the South Lawn before he left the White House to address a military veterans group in Louisville, Ky.
Mr. Trump thus did little to quell the furor he sparked Tuesday when he said American Jews who vote for Democrats showed “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” which critics said promoted an anti- Semitic stereotype and was highly offensive.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump again said that the Democratic Party is “anti- Israel” and bragged about having moved the U. S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement, citing them as reasons Jewish voters should support him.
American Jews tend to vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Only one in four Jewish voters cast a ballot for Mr. Trump in 2016, according to exit polls, and the president has sought to broaden that modest support for his re- election campaign.
But Jews have long bristled at the accusation of “dual loyalty,” which implicitly questions their allegiance to the United States, and many view his incendiary tweets and racist slurs with alarm.
Asked specifically about people who found his comment to be anti- Semitic, Mr. Trump insisted that it isn’t. “No, no, no. It’s only in your head,” he said. “It’s only anti- Semitic in your head.”
Earlier Wednesday, Mr. Trump tweeted thanks for the “very nice words” from Wayne Allen Root, who is best known for advancing the racist conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, and for suggesting that Islamic State was behind the lone gunman who killed 58 people and wounded 422 at a music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017. The gunman killed himself and his motivation was never determined.
Mr. Root called Mr. Trump “the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world” and said that Israeli Jews love him “like he’s the King of Israel.”