Trump says modern-day antisemitism reminds him of the Holocaust

Former President Donald Trump rallied his Jewish supporters at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey on Thursday, blaming the Biden-Harris administration for the rise in antisemitism.

“Kamala Harris is the candidate of the forces who want to destroy Western civilization, but most particularly Israel and Jewish people,” Trump said in scripted remarks at an event hosted by the GOP-aligned Stop Antisemitism advocacy group. “And I’m the candidate of those who want to defend Western civilization, defend Israel and defend the United States of America.”

In his remarks, which occasionally strayed from the script, Trump repeated many of his usual talking points about Israel and the Jewish community, including his criticism of Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats and his labeling of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in the U.S., as a “Palestinian.” (Schumer, a native New Yorker, announced this week that he wrote a book about antisemitism in America , which is due out in February.)

“We’re here tonight because we believe that this vicious outbreak of militant antisemitism must be given no quarter, no safe harbor, no place in a civilized society,” Trump said. “We must reject it in our schools, reject it in our foreign policy, reject it in our immigration system and reject it at the ballot box this November.”

Trump accused the Biden-Harris administration of contributing to the “surge of chaos and bigotry and violence the Jewish community is witnessing today” by projecting “weakness, radicalism and cowardice.”

“What is going on now is exactly what was going on before the Holocaust,” Trump said, citing recent vandalism of Jewish businesses and the pro-Palestinian protests. “If Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are elected, the radical left flag burners and Hamas sympathizers will not just be causing chaos on our streets. They’ll be running U.S. foreign policy in the White House, and Israel will be gone.”

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Republicans have suggested in recent weeks that internal Democratic politics on Israel and antisemitism influenced Harris’ decision to bypass Josh Shapiro , the Jewish pro-Israel governor from Pennsylvania, as the vice-presidential pick. The Harris campaign called those accusations “absurd.” Walz is also facing backlash over his association with an imam who promoted a movie about Adolf Hitler and praised Hamas after Oct. 7. The campaign responded on Wednesday, saying that Walz has no “personal relationship” with the imam.

Embracing Miriam Adelson

Trump appeared alongside Dr. Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson and one of his biggest donors.

“President Trump deserves the full support of the entire Jewish people,” Adelson said in her introduction. “And anyone who cares about Israel’s security and prosperity, this must be our pledge to him — this must be our promise to him — that the White House will be his again come January.”

Adelson reportedly pledged to spend more than $100 million to support Trump in the upcoming election. She and her husband previously gave $90 million to Trump’s campaign in 2020 and $20 million in 2016.

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Trump faced online backlash for praising Adelson, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018, implying that she got the “better” honor than the Congressional Medal of Honor, in which recipients of that military award are either deceased or injured.

Courting Jewish voters

Earlier on Thursday, the Trump campaign announced the launch of the “Jewish Voices for Trump” coalition. Members of the group include former administration officials, authors, and GOP operatives.

At a more than an hour-long press conference outside his golf club, Trump said he’d encourage Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war in Gaza as soon as possible. “Get your victory and get it over with,” Trump said. “It has to stop. The killing has to stop.” Commenting on the ongoing talks to finalize a hostage-ceasefire deal, Trump said in his remarks at the inside event that most of the Israeli hostages held in Gaza are not alive. Hamas is really being difficult to negotiate with,” he said, “and the reason is, they’re dead — not all, but almost all — a lot.”

Jewish supporters of the Harris-Walz ticket on Thursday evening held a virtual event called “ Jewish Women for Kamala ,” with Barbra Streisand as a featured guest. The organizers said more than 30,000 people turned in for the event.

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• Harris team calls out ‘absurd’ GOP claim that sidelining Shapiro was antisemitic