Former U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly, and controversially, chided the substantial majority of American Jews who vote Democratic for failing to appreciate his pro-Israel policies while in office.
The reasons the vast majority of American Jewry vote blue cannot and should not be simplified, nor is it a reflection of any one candidate. Historical trends, assimilation, population centers and many other factors are involved.
But, if there was a single microcosm that Trump critics could point to as to why he failed to make substantial inroads with Jewish voters, it would be his defense of his meeting last week with antisemitic entertainer Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, along with neo-Nazi podcaster Nick Fuentes.
Responding to the firestorm around the dinner with avowed Jew haters, Trump claimed he didn’t know who Fuentes was. While that is highly questionable, one could argue in good faith that the well-documented come-and-go nature of Mar-A-Lago, which drew prior concerns from federal authorities looking into Trump’s handling of government documents, is at least partially to blame.
As for Ye, though, Trump wrote on his social media platform that “we got along great, he expressed no antisemitism, & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’” He added, “Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?”
This essentially sums up many of the fears that American Jewish voters have about Trump. Despite his creation of a State Department antisemitism envoy, despite federal regulations extending protection to Jews on college campuses, despite his close Jewish family, Trump has always been susceptible to flattery from anyone, anywhere.
It simply didn’t matter to him that Ye has been routinely, unapologetically and dangerously spouting antisemitic rhetoric for some time now. Trump saw no reason not to take a meeting with him, and wrote that they got along great.
The stated reason Trump agreed to meet with him was to aid Ye with his business struggles. Unmentioned was that those struggles came about due to corporations dropping their partnerships with Ye left and right over his amplified Jew hatred.
This episode sums up the criticisms of and fears about Trump from American Jewry who the politician couldn’t lure to his side. They worry that everything is transactional, that there never was nor will be an interest in promoting Israel or protecting American Jewry beyond Trump’s whims or political needs of the day, that neo-Nazis and other Jew haters can so easily court favor with Trump through kind words or deeds.
Trump was honored just weeks ago with a rarely-given award by the Zionist Organization of America. In his acceptance speech, Trump again railed about the voting preferences of American Jews, in light of criticisms of Israel-related policies and staffing of the Obama and Biden administrations.
“When you see all of the horrible things that have taken place with Biden and Barack Hussein Obama and then they get 75 percent of the (Jewish) vote. What the hell is going on here?” said Trump, exasperated.
But, his question about what is going on can in part be answered with another question of his own.
“Why wouldn’t I agree to meet?”
Reprinted with permission from i24NEWS