Jewish aide wrote Trump Holocaust statement: report

A Russian-Jewish immigrant descended from Holocaust survivors penned President Trump’s controversial statement for the event’s International Remembrance Day, according to a new report.

Boris Epshteyn authored last Friday’s statement which did not mention Jews or anti-Semitism targeting them, Politico said Monday.

Politico said it confirmed Epshteyn’s involvement with a person knowledgeable of the statement’s drafting.

{mosads}Epshteyn joined the Trump administration as a special assistant after previously serving on the Republican’s 2016 presidential bid.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer earlier Monday, meanwhile, defended Trump’s statement concerning International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“The president went out of his way to recognize the Holocaust and the suffering that went through it and the people that were affected by it and the loss of life,” he told reporters. “And to make sure that America never forgets what so many people went through, whether they were Jews or gypsies, gays, [or those with a] disability.”

“The idea that you are nitpicking this statement that sought to remember this tragic event that occurred and the people who died in it is just ridiculous.”

Spicer additionally noted during Monday’s press conference the statement was written “with the help of an individual who is both Jewish and the descendant of Holocaust survivors.”

“I’m not getting into who wrote it,” he said when asked if he meant senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is also Trump’s son-in-law. “But [Trump] has several members of the Jewish faith on his senior staff.”

Kushner is the grandson of Holocaust survivors and a practicing Orthodox Jew who observes the Sabbath. Ivanka Trump, who is the president’s eldest daughter, converted to Judaism before marrying Kushner in 2009.

President Trump’s statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day provoked backlash for neglecting to mention either Jews or anti-Semitism.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), for example, on Monday called the omission “an historical mistake.”