Donald Trump’s beef with “the Squad” has been going on for a while now, and any time he takes a swing it tends to be legitimately troubling and upsetting. It’ll be hard for him to go lower than telling four non-white congresswomen, three of born in America,” to “go back” to their home countries — thus causing his supporters to actually launch into a racist chant he did nothing to stop — but this one comes close: On Tuesday the president of the United States, while again talking about Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, decided to insult millions of Jewish Democrats.
Trump was talking about Omar and Tlaib’s critical comments about Israel, which he has long sloppily conflated with hatred of Jews in general (including earlier in the day). This segued into a general rant against Democrats, who also tend to have mixed feelings over Israel, especially in relation to the Palestinian population. It was then that Trump said, in summation, “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat — I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”
Here's the video of Trump saying, "I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
Via CSPAN pic.twitter.com/ZKv4qP6tQ1— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 20, 2019
There’s a lot to unpack here, though we could start with the fact that few Jewish voters voted Trump in 2016, and even fewer voted Republican in 2018.
71% of Jews supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.
So, what Trump is saying here is that the overwhelming majority of American Jews are either idiots or we're treasonous. https://t.co/RNSsPcyyAv
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) August 20, 2019
Is calling the 8 out of 10 of American Jews who voted Democratic in 2018 “disloyal” anti-Semitic or nah? https://t.co/sLXYdMF450
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) August 20, 2019
Not an exaggeration! https://t.co/TjYTc3ufZs pic.twitter.com/Iv4leIWh4p
— Adam Serwer 🍝 (@AdamSerwer) August 20, 2019
Then there’s the idea that Trump, and many non-Jewish Republicans, seem to think of Jewish people as a monolith.
The problem is Trump thinks Jews are single-issue voters. He believes Israel is our true homeland, and that we'll abandon all other principles in order to protect it from threats—real or perceived.
This couldn't be further from the truth. https://t.co/4LW36jkmTQ
— . (@MarisaKabas) August 20, 2019
American Jews are not required to support the actions of the Israeli government. We don't take a blood oath at synagogue.
— . (@MarisaKabas) August 20, 2019
There’s also the idea that perhaps someone who said claimed they were “fine people” on both sides of the Charlottesville tragedy, including white supremacists, one of whom killed an innocent bystander.
Here is the full list of non-Jews entitled to judge American Jews and American Jewish organizations on their responses to President Trump's comments about American Jews:
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End of list.— Avi Mayer אבי מאיר (@AviMayer) August 20, 2019
When President Trump tweets “Dems have such disdain for Israel” he is by extension saying the vast majority of American Jews have disdain for Israel. I suspect most of these people would prefer he refrained from speaking for them.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 18, 2019
There’s also the idea of calling Jewish people “disloyal,” which has a long, scary history.
So 80% of American Jews are disloyal? Sounds to me like the old anti-Semitic trope questioning the loyalty of Jews. https://t.co/CEfWI0m02j
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) August 20, 2019
Here is the president suggesting that Jews are disloyal if they don't vote Republican. The notion of provisional belonging–that Jews aren't really American or French or whatever if they don't do xx–is an idea with a hideous history. N.B. Some 75% of American Jews vote Democrat. https://t.co/fTHTtOSPhi
— Bari Weiss (@bariweiss) August 20, 2019
Then again, Trump’s words are just scary in general.
Nothing makes me feel safer than an anti-Semitic, authoritarian President telling American Jews that they are disloyal if they don’t vote for him.
— Bryan Behar (@bryanbehar) August 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/Lollardfish/status/1163420128299704320
Still, some tried to find levity, even gallows humor in the president’s comment. One of them was Ilhan Omar herself.
Oh my 🤦🏽♀️ https://t.co/hChOjPAzHV
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 20, 2019
Some semi-joked that they were a little anxious that “American Jews” was trending Tuesday.
"American Jews" has been trending for the last few hours and folks, that's never a good sign.
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) August 20, 2019
When you see “American Jews” trending on twitter pic.twitter.com/uPRWOMDvIi
— Merchant (@themaddoctorm) August 20, 2019
Others felt it was a bizarre campaign move.
The president accusing the majority of American Jews of being either dumb or traitorous seems like a pretty crappy campaign strategy to me https://t.co/FhPsntBJPC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2019
here's the thing about American Jews: we know what fascists look like, and slathering orange clown makeup all over one of them isn't going to fool us
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) August 20, 2019
Of course, one can keep it simple, simply pointing out that the president just insulted millions of Jews.
https://twitter.com/DavidKlion/status/1163890286549819393