Former President Donald Trump is facing a new wave of backlash over what the White House is calling "antisemitic rhetoric."
The former president sparked the criticism Monday over comments he made on a segment of former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka's America First podcast.
Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, said during the segment: "Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion. They hate everything about Israel and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel would be destroyed."
Gorka and Trump were discussing the mounting scrutiny Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing from top Democrats, including President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as Israel's war with militant group Hamas in Gaza drags on. The conflict erupted after Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and more than 200 taken hostage. Israel's response has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, including 13,000 children, according to the Associated Press.
"I actually think they hate Israel," Trump told Gorka. "And the Democrat [sic] Party hates Israel."
In 2018, Trump reportedly told John Kelly, his then-White House chief of staff, that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler "did a lot of good things." The campaign of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris accused Trump of "parroting Hitler" in his speeches by saying immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our county."
He has said the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 were "very fine people," and dined in 2022 with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and Kanye West—after the rapper made a series of antisemitic comments.
The former president has also previously lashed out at Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats, saying in 2019 that they show "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
The White House blasted "vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric" on Monday after Trump's comments on Gorka's podcast.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates condemned "vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric" in a statement to Newsweek on Monday night.
"President Biden has put his foot down when it comes to vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric," Bates said. "As Antisemitic crimes and acts of hate have increased across the world—among them the deadliest attack committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust—leaders have an obligation to call hate what it is and bring Americans together against it. There is no justification for spreading toxic, false stereotypes that threaten fellow citizens. None. Like President Biden said, he was moved to run for President when he saw Neo Nazis chanting 'the same Antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the 1930s' in Charlottesville. He will never give hate any safe harbor, including today."
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Monday also criticized Trump over his comments on Gorka's podcast. Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive officer of the anti-hate organization, told Newsweek in an email that Trump's comments are "defamatory."
"Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory and patently false," Greenblatt said. "Serious leaders who care about the historic US-Israel alliance should focus on strengthening, rather than unraveling, bipartisan support for the State of Israel."
In response to the backlash, Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told Newsweek in an emailed statement that the Democratic Party is "anti-Semitic."
"The Biden Administration has given millions in aid to Gaza and the Iranian Regime, Democrats in Congress have signed petitions supporting Gaza terrorists and caved to the demands of Far-Left Palestinian extremists, and Chuck Schumer just called for new elections in Israel while they're in the midst of defending themselves from the attacks on October 7," Leavitt said. "President Trump is right—the Democrat [sic] Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal."
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Maura Zurick is the Newsweek Weekend Night Editor based in Cleveland, Ohio. Her focus is reporting on U.S. national news ... Read more
