Former President Trump warned of an apocalyptic future for Israel should he lose the November election, addressing a pro-Israel conference with the theme of combatting antisemitism.
The Republican presidential nominee disparaged the estimated 60 percent of American Jews as “fools” who should have their “head examined” if they vote for the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Harris.
“If I don’t win this election – and Jewish people would have a lot to do with that, 60 percent are voting for the enemy – Israel will cease to exist in two years,” Trump said to a favorable and receptive crowd. “I believe I’m 100 percent right…. If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure, and we’ll stop the toxic poison of antisemitism.”
Trump addressed the Israeli American Council conference in Washington D.C., accompanying Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late casino magnate and Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Miriam Adelson is one of the former president’s most high-value donors, contributing nearly $100 million to his campaign. Adelson is also a donor to the IAC.
“Miriam has me working hard here,” Trump joked to a crowd that welcomed him with a standing ovation, chants of “Trump,” with one woman unfurling a cloth banner bearing the words “fight, fight, fight” – in reference to Trump’s shouts following his survival in a first assassination attempt.
It was Trump’s first trip back to Washington D.C. following the second apparent assassination attempt against him at his Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida. The venue of his speech, the Washington Hilton, was the site of the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.
But Trump only made one reference to his surviving a July shooting, when a gunman’s bullet lipped his ear during a rally in Pennsylvania, bringing up how looking at “his favorite chart” – displaying immigration numbers during his term in office – saved his life.
But on the theme of combatting antisemitism, Trump promised if elected to “confront the crisis of antisemitism at universities, and I will tell the college presidents that if you don’t end anti-semitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and lose all federal support.”
The Anti-Defamation League on Thursday said that of the 477 percent increase in anti-Israel incidents on campuses over a one-year period, these incidents also referenced classic antisemitic tropes like purported Jewish wealth, greed and control over political affairs. The ADL also recorded 28 assaults.
But most of his remarks focused on appealing to the American and Israeli Jewish community for their vote.
The majority of American Jews prefer Harris to Trump — 72 percent to 25 percent — in a poll published this month by the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
But the Republican Jewish Coalition, an advocacy and political action group, is focusing on shifting the American Jewish vote in key swing states like Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, and Georgia – launching a $10 million ad buy earlier this month.
The advertisements paint Harris as “anti-Israel” and tie her to the progressive House Democrat “squad” who are among the most out-spoken critics of Israel in Congress and have been censured for comments considered antisemitic.
“Anybody who votes for a Democrat or Kamala, worst…you should have your head examined,” Trump said during his remarks.
“Unceasing bloody war to obliterate the Jewish and state and drive Jews out of the Holy land, and they are not forgiving people – you found that out on Oct. 7,” Trump said, seeking to lay out the stakes of his loss.
“The United States election is the most important election in the history of Israel actually if you think about it how crazy does that sound, but it’s true.”
Trump’s remarks come shortly before the first anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel when Hamas fighters broke through the barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Southern Israel and killed an estimated 1,200 people in their homes, on the street and targetted a music festival.
Hamas kidnapped an estimated 250 people from Israel, with about 100 people still held hostage — both alive and dead. The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas has killed an estimated 40,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Iran, a backer of Hamas, and its proxy forces — Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — have also engaged in exchanges of fire that have brought the region to the brink of all-out conflict.
The Biden administration is pushing for a cease-fire and hostage release deal, similar to a one-week truce that succeeded in getting out more than 100 hostages at the end of November.