WASHINGTON — Speaking at antisemitism event on Thursday, Donald Trump doubled down on attacks on American Jews — those who do not vote for him.
He suggested that Jews would be to blame if he loses in November. He also said American Jews who vote for Democrats harm American interests, in an escalation of his standard rhetoric.
Trump made the comments at an event Thursday evening called “Fighting Antisemitism,” sponsored by the Israeli-American casino magnate Miriam Adelson, one of the biggest donors to his campaign. The room at the Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., was packed with dozens of supporters of the former president, including donors and Orthodox Jews who repeatedly cheered him.
Trump has for years made the claim that American Jews who mostly vote for Democrats are mentally ill, and this year, he has taken to saying that Jews who vote for Democrats need to “have their head examined.” He has also repeatedly said Israel will be destroyed if he loses the election, a prediction he repeated Thursday.
But in this speech, he also said Jews would be at fault if he loses, citing the low percentage of Jewish voters who have historically supported him. He referenced a poll he said he saw showing that he could receive 40% of the Jewish vote — which itself would be a marked increase for him from 2016 and 2020.
“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, and the United States hasn’t been treated right,” he said. “The Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss if I’m at 40%. I mean, think of it, that means 60% voting for Kamala.”
The speech was one of two Trump gave to Jewish audiences in Washington on Thursday. He also spoke at the Israeli American Council’s conference following the “Fighting Antisemitism” event. He had also been scheduled to visit a kosher restaurant in a Hasidic Brooklyn neighborhood earlier in the day, but that campaign stop was canceled after the restaurant owner died.
Trump told both audiences Thursday night that he would “deport the foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst” and restore a ban on travel from several Muslim-majority countries that he instituted in 2017. The ban was opposed at the time by a broad range of Jewish groups.
“I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip,” he said. “And we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban. Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centers and killing people. We’re not taking them from infested countries.”
The IAC does not necessarily represent all Israeli Americans; while Trump was speaking, another group launched called American-Israelis for Kamala.
“The initiative was formed to share the perspectives of Israeli Americans — who are deeply involved in and touched by what happens in Israel — with other Jewish voters to share why love for Israel motivates them to vote for Harris,” said the group’s announcement. Some of the organizers were identified with UnXeptable, a group that organizes solidarity protests with Israelis who oppose the polices of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump’s laments about the majority of Jews who vote against him — and who are expected to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris — were a theme of the night.
“It’s craziness to say, I’m at 40%,” he said of the poll. “When I heard that number today, just came out today — when I heard that number today —I think it was insulting to our country. It was insulting to Israel.”
It also represented a shift that Trump explicitly said that American Jews who vote for Democrats harm American interests; he has previously said they don’t show sufficient loyalty to Israel.
Democrats and a number of Jewish activists have said his rhetoric about Jewish Democrats is antisemitic, a claim that Halie Soifer, the head of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, repeated Thursday in response to his speech. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs also denounced the speech, as it had done the last time he gave a speech on antisemitism in August, when he said Jews who vote for Democrats are mentally unstable.
“Trump continues to label Jews who don’t support him as disloyal and crazy, to play into dangerous dual loyalty tropes, and to blame Jews for a potential electoral loss,” the liberal-leaning public affairs group said.
Trump repeated and expanded his attacks on New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader and most senior Jewish elected official in U.S. history.
“Chuck Schumer is a Palestinian,” Trump said, the latest time he has used the identity as a pejorative. “What the hell happened to him?”
Appearing to make a joke, he added, “I saw that the other day he was dressed in one their robes. That’ll be next.”
Trump said, as he has in the past, that Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel would not have happened if he were president. He also repeated claims that Israel would be wiped out within two years if he is not elected. “Israel, in my opinion, within a period of two or three years, will cease to exist,” he said. “It’s going to be wiped out.”
He repeated that claim an hour or so later when he addressed the Israeli American Council’s conference elsewhere in the city.
“Israel will be faced with total annihilation,” he told the conference. “You have a big protector in me, you don’t have a big protector on the other side.”
Jews who vote for Democrats should “have their head examined,” he said to cheers. “Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will become unlivable war zones.”
Before the “Fighting Antisemitism” event, Trump met with Andrei Kozlov, an Israeli held hostage for months by Hamas who was rescued in an Israeli military operation in June, and brought him onstage during the event. Trump also met with families of hostages held by Hamas and killed by the terror group.
Also Thursday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, met with families of Israeli Americans still held hostage.
Trump also told the “Fighting Antisemitism” group, referring to Harris, that “Israel has to defeat her.” He added, “It’s the most important election in the history of Israel.”
Adelson introduced Trump at both events, held at hotels on opposite sides of Washington’s northwest quadrant. She urged audiences to thank Trump as a champion of Israel.
“You should already have made your mind on who to vote for, Donald J. Trump,” she told the “Fighting Antisemitism” gathering. “He is a true friend of the Jewish people.”
Trump echoed the line at the Israeli American conference. “If you want Israel to survive, you need Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States.”
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