Donald Trump Is Fueling Antisemitism | Opinion

Instead of offering a plan to “fight antisemitism” at a recent event about that topic, former President Donald Trump ratcheted up an ugly, familiar script. He threatened the American Jewish community, stating that if he loses in November, he will hold Jewish Americans responsible. “Do they know what the hell is happening if I don’t win this election? And the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens, because … 60 percent of the people are voting for the enemy,” he said.
In his remarks, Trump also falsely claimed that immigrants are responsible for rising U.S. antisemitism, despite clear evidence that right wing xenophobic extremists, core Trump supporters, are the leading culprits. Antisemitism, wherever it comes from in the U.S., left or right or from QAnon or other extremist groups, must be condemned and countered. That includes Trump’s remarks.
The former president was open about being a dictator on day one of a second term; he is a threat to the American Jewish community. His rhetoric opens the door to increased violence and repression of the Jewish community, and other individuals and groups. This is a story we have seen historically, from authoritarians and despots, from Adolf Hitler to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Needless to say, as dangerous and reprehensible as Trump is, we are not equating him to those two.)
It is not the first time Trump has used antisemitic tropes, but his timing of this repetition raises deep concerns about the safety and security of the American Jewish community. This community saw a rise in antisemitic attacks during Trump’s presidency and again post the Oct. 7, 2023, murderous attack on Israelis. Now, Trump’s language is even more concerning for its impact to stoke future attacks against the Jewish community.
But something else is taking shape as well. Trump, a leading presidential candidate has singled out American Jews as a scapegoat if he loses this election. This new and dangerous low is appalling.
Some may whitewash or even forgive Trump’s dangerous rhetoric blaming American Jews if he loses as just transactional. But this is dangerously naïve, and adds fuel to the fire of extremism and anti-Jewish hate. No one should miss Trumps implication last Thursday night. Given Trump’s past predictions of “a bloodbath” if he is denied the presidency again, it is hard to see his remarks as anything but a threat to American Jews.
If Trump loses in November, Jewish Americans will have relatively little to do with it, given that they represent slightly less than 2.5 percent of the total U.S. population. But Trump’s efforts to preemptively scapegoat them for his shortcomings—a preemptive version of the “stabbed in the back” myth that the Nazis used to blame German Jews and other groups for the country’s defeat in the Great War—could reverberate into the future for years to come.
What many find equally egregious following Trump’s Israeli American Council (IAC) speech is the silence by too many Republicans who enable his bigotry and fail to address extremism on the right. This hateful rhetoric and disinformation is picked up and used by violent right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists. It can lead to attacks and murder like we saw at the Tree of Life (L’Simcha) Congregation synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooter, a white supremacist, like other extremists, was fueled by the neo-Nazi march through Charlottesville in 2017.
Trump and extremists’ unabated use of xenophobic antisemitic tropes without an immediate and unequivocal condemnation from a bipartisan group of leaders across the U.S. will likely lead to more violence and hatred toward the American Jewish community. A 2024 American Jewish Committee survey found that 93 percent of Jews think that antisemitism is a problem, with 56 percent calling it a “serious” problem. Swift and full implementation of the Biden-Harris National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, and congressional consideration of the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act, highlight key steps to comprehensively prevent and combat antisemitism across the U.S. This national effort must be coupled with state and local action, including by governors and mayors, across the U.S., who should adopt policies in line with the White House led strategy to counter antisemitism.
The tactics used by Trump are not just an American Jewish community problem. Trump is using the same tactics now to attack, demean, and destroy other groups based on race, religion, and gender—all with the goal of dividing Americans. No one should remain silent in the face of Trump’s antisemitism and bigotry. No one has an excuse for words of hate that lead to violence. Jewish Americans and all others must be alarmed by and push back against the growing antisemitism Trump aims to weaponize. Trump has utterly failed to address the root causes of antisemitism with a strategy and instead is its insidious and egregious champion.
Norman Eisen, a former ambassador to the Czech Republic and former President Barack Obama’s “ethics czar,” served as special impeachment counsel to the House Judiciary Committee in 2019-20.
Jonathan Katz formerly served as the deputy assistant administrator in the Europe & Eurasia Bureau at USAID in the Obama administration and held senior positions in the State Department and in the U.S. Congress, including as a national security fellow for Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).
The views expressed in this article are the writers’ own.