Less than two weeks after Donald Trump hosted anti-Semitic rapper Kanye West and his white nationalist and Holocaust denial friend Nick Fuentes at a dinner at Mar-a-Lago, the former president said Friday that Jewish leaders “should be ashamed of their” lack of loyalty.”
“How quickly Jewish leaders forgot that I was by far the best president for Israel,” Trump said wrote on Truth Social after posting an op-ed from a far-right conspiracy theorist who said Trump did more for Israel and the “Jewish people than anyone else in history.”
“This lack of loyalty to their closest friends and allies is why large numbers in Congress, and so many others, have stopped supporting Israel,” he added.
Trump’s post was surprising but not surprising given his inflammatory dinner with Ye and Fuentes and his emphatic silence afterward about their anti-Semitism.
Ye’s Twitter account was blocked in October after he vowed to go “death con 3 on Jewish people” in a tweet. Days after his dinner with Trump, Ye told right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, “I like Hitler” and “I like Jewish people, but I also like Nazis.” Still, Trump has not condemned his remarks.
Ye’s Twitter account was suspended again earlier this month after he posted a Star of David intertwined with a swastika.
Trump has only said about his dinner that Ye did not express anti-Semitism while they were dining. He claimed he had no idea who Fuentes was, though witnesses said he praised him as they discussed issues.
Accusing the Jewish community of disloyalty, as Trump did, is in itself an anti-Semitic attack that goes back centuries.
In the op-ed Trump reposted to Truth Social, conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root dismissed all criticism of Trump’s controversial dinner. Root called Ye “mentally disturbed” and Fuentes a “stranger” the former president did not expect.
Reactions to Trump’s latest comment were muted on Truth Social. But Jewish groups quickly blasted Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner after it took place and his refusal to condemn anti-Semitism.
“We strongly condemn the virulent anti-Semitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, and call on all political leaders to reject their hate speech and refuse to meet with them,” said Matt Brooks, CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition, in a statement that has just been released. after Trump addressed a gathering of the group.
The RJC also retweeted a message from former US ambassador to Israel David Friedman telling Trump that his meeting with both the anti-Semitic Ye and Fuentes was “unacceptable.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, called Trump’s Mar-a-Lago rally “appalling.”
Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu, returning as prime minister, said on Sunday he is waiting for Trump to stand up and condemn anti-Semitism and the anti-Semites he dined with.
