Trump repeats attacks on Jewish political leaders, voters as battle for key group intensifies | The Times Of Update

As former President Donald Trump seeks to woo Jewish voters in the 2024 election, he has taken to attacking Jewish Democrats, targeting the faith of three of America’s most prominent Jewish politicians and criticizing Jews who support Democrats as “absolute morons” who need to “have their heads examined.”

Those attacks have increasingly colored the backdrop of a crucial fight for potentially swing voters: Jewish Americans in key states, a group that has consistently supported Democrats in past elections and, This year, he has become increasingly concerned about issues such as rising anti-Semitism at home and U.S. support for Israel in its war in Gaza.and the hostages held by Hamas — Six of them, including an American, were recently killed while in Hamas captivity..

Many Jewish advocates, who have been quick to note that Jewish voters vote on a range of issues beyond Israel, say Trump’s attacks are blatantly anti-Semitic and draw on age-old tropes suggesting a “dual loyalty” of American Jews between the United States and the Jewish state. Even some of Trump’s allies on the right see the comments as increasingly irrelevant to the broader effort to win over a small but significant number of Jewish voters in a close election.

“It’s deeply dangerous, deeply disturbing, and it’s part of this broader normalization of anti-Semitism,” Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the nonpartisan Jewish Public Affairs Council, told NBC News. “Trump thinks he’s entitled to the Jewish vote, to the support of Jews, and when they don’t give him that, he immediately falls back on this idea of ​​the disloyal or evil Jew.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said that “playing this trope of dual loyalty” is “classic anti-Semitism.”

“I think it’s a mistake,” he said. “This is not the first time this has happened with President Trump. I mean, we saw it when he was in office.”

After Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, Trump spoke. Social truth platform to call Shapiro a “highly overrated Jewish governor” who “for strictly political reasons has refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel and the Jewish people have ever had,” adding that Shapiro “has done nothing for Israel and never will.”

Trump used Palestinian identity as an insult against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., several times this yearclaiming that the prominent Jewish leader has “become like a Palestinian.”

Last monthTrump muttered “yeah” repeatedly as a New York radio host, Sid Rosenberg, described Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, as “a lousy Jew.” During that same interview, he said that any Jewish person who votes Democratic “should have their head examined” and is “an absolute idiot.” (Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said at the time that Trump “is clearly against the policy.”)