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Trump's fake crusade against anti-semitism [1]
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Date: 2025-04-08
Trump and Republicans were outraged at the end of 2023 and last year at protests against the continued devastation in Gaza. Every attempt at free speech about the situation was labeled anti-semitism.
After protests were held at colleges and universities, Republicans lept into action and dragged in the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn before a House subcommittee and where they failed to answer whether students should be disciplined for calling for the genocide of Jews. Even Joe Biden's White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said that "It's unbelievable that this needs to be said: Calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country."
The first batch of presidents made a mistake in not bring prepared for a simple yes or no question. Obfuscating about school policy did not work in the least for anyone including the Biden Administration.
In May of 2024, there was another wave of protests. And still more House hearings on the same subject. Many more presidents were called in for grilling about deals they had made with protesters, and how they handled the protests and the protesters.
Trump immediately promised on the campaign trail, and told donors, that he would crush pro-Palestinian protests and deport students on visas for their participation.
He followed through with an executive order on January 29th called Additional Measures To Combat Anti-semitism. His fact sheet that he put out on January 30th is a lot easier to read and is called President Donald J. Trump Takes Forceful And Unprecedented Steps To Combat Anti-semitism.
Trump's cudgel is the October 7th, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel. That justifies everything. The ongoing misery and suffering in Gaza has nothing to do with it.
This allows him to go after protesters at universities and colleges, threatening universities and colleges with losing grants, which his is getting rid of anyway, street protesters, online protesters, and positive reporting about Gaza protests and protesters. A complete assault on the First Amendment, with what sounds like reasonable justification for it. But it's not.
Trump has to go after every single source of opposition to his plans. Those plans mean the First Amendment goes away for everybody except conservative elements and the right wing and the violent right wing. He just loves the chaos.
But the chinks in Trump's anti-semitism armor have been showing for a long time. When he said that the Jews who weren't completely pro-Israel were no longer Jews, people took notice. That's because Trump doesn't understand the difference between anti-zionism and anti-semitism. Either that, or he just conveniently forgets it.
Through much of 2024, Trump started calling Sen. Chuck Schumer a "Palestinian," deliberately meaning it to be a slur. He even said Schumer supported Hamas. Everyone know Schumer is Jewish and that was a ridiculous thing to say. But on March 6th in the Oval Office, Trump said to reporters that "Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I am concerned. He's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian."
Now Trump is an expert on what religion any person has. Hitler's SS and the Gestapo also determined who was Jewish or not. Am I saying that Trump is a Nazi? Hell, yes!
Trump is walking talking anti-semitism. He uses the attack of calling others anti-semites as a cover for his own illegal activities.
Trump even claimed that if he lost the 2024 election, it would be partly because of the Jews.
After the Democratic National Convention, Trump called Pennsylvanian Gov. Josh Shapiro "the highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania." He also criticized Shapiro for refusing to "acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had."
Trump never describes someone as being a protestant, or a Catholic politician. It's only those who are Jewish. Or those he thinks are Muslims.
He even used the trope to attack Kamala Harris during the campaign, saying she "hates Israel and will do nothing but make its journey through complexities of survival as difficult as possible, hoping in the end it will fail."
Trump's claim that he has done more for the Jewish people than any other president is anti-semitic in its formation. It's also totally laughable. He all too easily wants to accuse others of being anti-semitic, when you need to consider the source.
Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs nailed it with, "The goal for this administration isn't to counter antisemitism or protect israel. It's to weaponize antisemitism to go after their political enemies, advance an extreme agenda, and undercut democracy --- and it only makes Jews 'less' safe."
Exactly. Trump is co-opting the cause of fighting antisemitism for his own purposes. It's been working really well, like against the college presidents. It will continue to be used against any student with a visa.
The Anti-Defamation League also had their criticism. "A President has many powers, but none of them include deciding who is and who isn't Jewish. Doing so, and using 'Palestinian' as a slur, are both beneath any POTUS. Instead of weaponizing people's identity, use the bully pulpit to bring people together."
Trump has even called Schumer "a proud member of Hamas." Nothing could be more ridiculous.
During their debate last year, Trump called Biden a "Palestinian." That Jews that didn't vote for him needed to "have your head examined."
The case of Mahmoud Khahli is a prime example of weaponization of the fight against antisemitism and taking away First Amendment rights. Being a student, taking part in a pro-Palestinian protest and being on a visa made him a prime target. The point is to make an example of him, so others will live in fear of the same happening to them. They could be targets even without having been in a protest.
Trump's lack of any kind of empathy or understanding of the Palestinians was shown with the gold infused "Trump Gaza" video he posted on Truth Social. It was widely denounced, but it hasn't stopped him.
Just remember the October, 2024, rally at Madison Square Garden. That comedian mocked Palestinians as rock-throwers and Jews as cheapskates. The crowd cheered. They only groaned at him calling Puerto Rico as a floating island of garbage. Racism is infectious.
How do we tell the general public that Trump is an antisemite himself when he appears to be fighting against antisemitism? In each of those attacks and capitulations by large law firms, after making the law firms agree to pro bono work for Trump's causes, and promising never to do DEI ever again, they were all enlisted in the cause against antisemitism, while criticizing them for having represented pro-Palestinian protesters and causes.
Trump disguises his attacks against Jews and Israel while making it look like he's for Israel and against antisemitism. It's been working, except for all the people and organizations that gave called him out on it.
Trump has tried the same tactic with Black people saying that he done more for them than any president since Abraham Lincoln. Only a few have fallen for it. The rest of us laugh at it.
It seems strange that Trump has not yet attacked Rep. Jerry Nadler, the most senior Jewish member of the House. This has not stopped Nadler from responding to Trump's false campaign against antisemitism. He has accused Trump of being a "would-be dictator" who is using the fight against anti-semitism as a cover to cower top colleges and universities.
In an interview with The Guardian, Nadler blasted Trump for co-opting real dangers against Jews to his own ends.
"Trump obviously doesn't give a damn about anti-semitism, this is just an expression of his authoritarianism."
Trump is using this ploy to cancel grants to prestigious halls of learning by claiming they were under investigation for "antisemic harrassment."
$210 million to Princeton. $9 billion to Harvard. $500 million to Brown University. $400 million to Columbia. All because there were pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses and they didn't call the police to remove them right off the bat. There were some cases where anti-Israel sentiments turned into antisemitic incidents.
Nadler said that if Trump was allowed to attack free speech on campuses, Jews would feel it the most.
"Wherever freedom is curtailed, Jews in particular become victims. That's the history. There are always anti-semites looking for an excuse to react, so this is dangerous and it certainly doesn't help at all."
Nadler said that if Trump really wanted to protect Jewish people he would have never hired the "numerous antisemites he has appointed to some of the highest positions in government."
"From my point of view, the protesters are expressing obnoxious opinions, I don't agree with them. But they're entitled to those opinions. I disagreed with the encampment, but regardless, Khalil is entitled to free speech and shouldn't be deported for his opinions." Speaking of Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead protest at Columbia University.
Rep. Nadler is also against the withdraw of grants and support by the Trump administration as a weapon.
"Federal agencies can place conditions on money given to universities, but they have to carry out a legal process. There are ample grounds to sue."
Trump keeps getting away with his undisguised antisemitism because he wraps it up in the cause against antisemitism. That needs to be taken away and exposed as Schumer and Nadler have said.
Trump can't be allowed to say who is, and is not a Jew. If Trump isn't a Hitler, he sure shows all the signs of being one.
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