The Trump’s administration announced Monday that it was creating a new cross-agency task force to forcefully address antisemitism, and named an official to lead it. But he’s not Jewish.
Leo Terrell, an attorney, former O.J. Simpson supporter and ex-Fox News contributor, was appointed by the president to serve as a senior counsel in his Justice Department’s civil rights division. In that role, Terrell will also oversee the task forces, which are overseen by Justice but will include representatives from Department of Education as well as Health and Human Services.
Terrell has taken on his new appointment with gusto, tweeting about a Columbia University protest on the first day of the new semester.
“Attention Board of Trustees of all colleges and universities allowing antisemitic behavior to take place. You have a fiduciary duty to protect Jewish students!” he wrote. “Expect a letter from me in the immediate future!” This week Terrell made good on that promise, as the Department of Education announced new Title VI antisemitism investigations into several universities as part of the task force’s duties, including Columbia.
Formerly aligned with the NAACP, Terrell, who is African-American, made a public turn toward Republicanism beginning in the 2000s, even as he served the role of liberal foil on Fox News; more recently he has come aboard the Trump train in particular. Over the span of a few months in 2020, the Forward reports, he went from blaming Trump for rising antisemitism to blaming Joe Biden, whom Terrell tweeted “has failed to denounce the anti-somatic [sic] remarks of Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton.” Terrell is a frequent adversary of Sharpton, who himself has strained relations with the Jewish community.
In 2023, a few months after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and rising antisemitism in the U.S., Terrell declared, “No Jewish American in his or her right mind should vote Democrat.” He has also knocked Biden’s handling of antisemitism on Fox News.
“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” said Terrell, whose official title is Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, in the statement announcing his appointment. “The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”
Dov Hilkind, a conservative Jewish activist in New York, told the Forward this week that Terrell is “a great guy and a real mensch and cares deeply, deeply, deeply.”
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