The White House on Monday condemned former President Trump’s comments telling American Jews to “get their act together” as “antisemitic.”
“Donald Trump’s comments were antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing. “But let’s be clear, for years, for years now Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures, and it should be called out.”
Trump on Sunday touted his support of Israel in a post on Truth Social, his fledgling social media company, before questioning why Jewish people in the U.S. did not support him more strongly.
“No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.,” Trump wrote. “Those living in Israel, though, are a different story — Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.! U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — Before it is too late!”
The comments were widely criticized by Jewish groups and U.S. lawmakers, who bemoaned that Trump has on multiple occasions reduced Jews in the U.S. to their support for Israel.
“It is bewildering that President Trump, who has Jewish children and Jewish grandchildren, continues to evoke age-old antisemitic tropes,” Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, said Monday.
“American Jews got ‘their act together’ in 2020, when 77 percent supported Biden. This won’t change because Jews view Trump and MAGA candidates as extremist-aligned threats to our security, democracy & values, as epitomized by this antisemitic screed,” Jewish Democratic Council of America CEO Halie Soifer said in a statement.
Trump made support for Israel a cornerstone of his foreign policy, but he has repeatedly drawn criticism for dabbling in antisemitic tropes or failing to condemn extremism.
In 2019, Trump suggested that Jewish people who vote for Democrats are either ignorant or disloyal.
The president angered Jewish groups and others in 2017 when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., where marchers carried Nazi banners and chanted antisemitic slogans.
Jewish groups also called on Trump to more forcefully condemn white nationalism in 2018 after a gunman killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.
In 2016, Trump tweeted an image of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton with the phrase “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever” inside a Star of David on top of piles of cash.
–Updated at 2:28 p.m.