Former US president Donald Trump twice asserted that Jewish Americans would be a leading cause of his electoral loss if more don’t vote for him in November, as he fumed over his level of support in the community while addressing events on combating antisemitism and supporting Israel on Thursday. “If I don’t win this election..
. the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump declared at an event branded “Fighting Antisemitism.” “I will put it to you very simply and gently: I really haven’t been treated right, but you haven’t been treated right, because you’re putting yourself in great danger,” he added.
The Republican presidential candidate was quickly called out by left-leaning Jewish community leaders. “This is dangerous antisemitism intended to sow division and distrust and undermine our democracy. And it’s going to lead to (more) violence against Jews,” tweeted Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnik.
Later Thursday evening, Trump doubled down on the message at an event organized by the Israeli American Council (IAC). As he did in the first speech, the GOP nominee cited unspecified polling that placed support among Jewish voters for US Vice President Kamala Harris at 60 percent. “Do they know what the hell’s happening if I don’t win this election? The Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens, because.
.. 60% of the people [are] voting for the enemy,” he said.
Jews make up just two percent of the US population and have long voted overwhelmingly for the Democratic Party. Trump regularly criticizes the phenomenon, but Thursday’s comments marked an intensification of that rhetoric. After declaring earlier this month that Israel would be annihilated if US Vice President Kamala Harris wins in November, he further upped the stakes by telling the supportive IAC crowd that Israel would be annihilated within two years if he loses.
He claimed that Iran will quickly obtain a nuclear weapon and “terrorist death squads will conduct constant raids into Israeli territory from all sides, going door to door and torturing, raping, kidnapping and massacring innocent civilians...
Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will become unlivable war zones, as suicide attacks grind life to a halt.” “I said to [IAC funder] Miriam [Adelson] today, ‘They have to go through a little tough love here today because we have to tell them the fact that Israel will not exist within two years if [Harris] becomes president,'” Trump declared. “You have to defeat Kamala Harris more than any other people on Earth.
Israel, I believe, has to defeat her,” he said, claiming Harris “makes Barack Hussein Obama look like he loved Israel by comparison.” In one of the few non-partisan moments of the evening, Trump gave shoutouts to former Hamas hostage Andrey Kozlov, Dedi Simchi, whose son Guy was killed during Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, and the families of several American-Israelis still being held hostage. He even called Kozlov and Simchi separately to the stage to offer a message to the crowd.
Seemingly unprepared for the moment, both sufficed with thanking the president. Addressing the hostage crisis himself, Trump said, “Hopefully we’re going to be getting them back very, very soon.” “I will support Israel’s right to win its war on terror.
.. but you have to win it fast if you can,” he urged.
Hours earlier, Harris’s running mate Tim Walz held his own first meeting with the families of the seven American hostages, pledging to use his platform to raise awareness for their cause, while assuring the families that Harris and US President Joe Biden would work tirelessly to bring about the release of their loved ones, his campaign said. Both of Trump’s Thursday’s events were in front of largely Jewish audiences and both were bank-rolled by Israeli-American casino magnate Miriam Adelson, a major campaign donor. Speaking at the second event, Adelson urged attendees to follow her in supporting Trump.
He “has helped craft Jewish faith and preserve Jewish continuity...
He is the father of a beautiful Jewish woman...
and he recognizes the justice of our 2,000-year-old cause.”.
