Trump tells Jewish Republicans 'Israel is gone' if Harris wins

Former President Donald Trump told a crowd of Jewish Republicans that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election this fall that “Israel is gone” and said Jewish Democrats who support Biden should have their “head examined.”

“If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that. If they win, Israel is gone,” Trump said to the Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday. “You can forget about Israel, that's what's going to happen. So they have to get out on Nov. 5 and they have to vote for Trump. If they don’t, I think it's going to be a very terrible situation.”

The former president, who in the past has criticized Jewish Democrats and said they “hate Israel ,” said that Jewish voters supporting Harris should have their head examined — as he has said during rallies. Trump has ramped his rhetoric about who Jewish voters should back amid increased fears of antisemitism after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. Since the Gaza war, Trump has claimed that Jewish voters who choose Democrats hate their religion and “hate everything about Israel” and has called Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer , the highest-ranking Jewish official in America and a staunch defender of Israel, a “proud member of Hamas.”

“I don't understand how anyone can support them,” Trump said, speaking via livestream at the group’s annual retreat in Las Vegas. “And I say it constantly, if you had them to support and you are Jewish you have to have your head examined. They have been very bad to you.”

Trump also acknowledged the death of the six Israeli hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who Trump appeared to first refer to as “Hersh Goldman.” He also repeated his comment that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel would have never happened if he had been president at the time.

“I will keep America safe and I will work with you to make sure Israel is with us for thousands of years,” Trump said in remarks from New York. “We’re not going to let go of it.”

In response to the comments, the Harris campaign said Trump has "made it obvious he would turn on Israel in a moment if it suited his personal interests," and "he has done so in the past." Harris, whose husband Doug Emhoff is Jewish, also reiterated her "unwavering commitment to the security of Israel," and Israel's right to defend itself.

“Donald Trump openly demeans Jewish Americans, proudly dined with a neo-Nazi, and reportedly thinks Adolf Hitler ‘did some good things,'" Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said in a statement. "He has said the only people he wants counting his money are ‘short guys wearing yarmulkes,’ and praised neo-Nazis who chanted ‘Jews will not replace us’ as ‘very fine people.’"