I’ll give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt: when he declared last summer that Mexican immigrants to the US were drug traffickers and rapists, he probably didn’t realize the kind of people with whom that would resonate most deeply.
Like white nationalists and neo-Nazis.
And I hope no one is shocked to learn that people who regard the “white race” as superior and under threat often do not have the highest regard for Jews.
Andrew Anglin of the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer “decried ‘Jewish ethnic activism’ against Trump’s campaign. He doesn’t think there’s an actual Jewish conspiracy against Trump, he added, just that it’s in the nature of the ‘ratlike’ Jews to try to destroy anyone who’s good for civilization.”
Writing at The Forward, Bethany Mandel notes that after Ann Coulter posted her infamous “f—king Jews” tweet, many of the vicious Jew-haters who joined the #IStandWithAnn hashtag were also Trump supporters.
While there is no evidence that Trump is personally hostile to Jews, he– like Jeremy Corbyn– seems unwilling to make a clear and unequivocal break with his more hateful supporters. Mandel writes:
What is most shocking on the heels of the general anti-Semitism of Trump’s fans and now with the mainstream exposure of them due to Coulter’s comments is the candidate’s radio silence on the situation. Trump is known for many things, but keeping his lips sealed is certainly not one of them. Since his campaign has taken off, Trump has spent a good deal of energy playing dumb when it comes to the overwhelming nature of the support for his candidacy from white nationalists and neo-Nazis…
When his own supporters tweet cartoons depicting Jews as crooked-nosed and sniveling at those who dare speak out against him, Trump and his staff are silent. The candidate stated recently in response to an endorsement from noted white supremacist David Duke that he neither needed nor wanted Duke’s support but that a lot of folks, both liberals and Republicans, support him. Trump failed to note why he was refusing Duke’s endorsement — even when Duke’s message of support included a caveat that he was concerned about Trump’s friendliness with the “Jewish elite.”
It certainly doesn’t help erase doubts when Trump blithely tweets friendly comments without bothering to check out whom they are from– in this case a Dutch white supremacist.
