New Trump Administration Will Mean Increased Anti-Semitic Hatred – The Forward

Throughout my three-decade career in counterterrorism, I have avoided politics. But the two have become more intertwined than ever. Tropes that were once limited to skinhead clubs and white supremacist online forums now litter the rhetoric of Donald Trump supporters and MAGA channels.

Anti-Semites and hate-mongering influencers thrive on Channel X, which is headed by one of Trump’s most famous supporters, Elon Musk. Users of The Donald, another forum frequented by anti-Semitic ultranationalists (one that was instrumental in mobilizing before the January 6th attack on our democracy), are now mobilizing to become poll workers.

The truth is that no one deserves more blame for this tsunami of anti-Semitism than Donald Trump. It is reasonable to assume that if Trump is re-elected, anti-Jewish hatred in America will increase.

Some Republican Jewish Coalition ads have portrayed Kamala Harris as condoning anti-Semitic rhetoric. Trump, on the contrary, said at a recent election event“If I don’t win this election,” then “the Jewish people will be largely to blame for the loss.” At another event Trump blamed the Jews a “vote for the enemy” for the hypothetical destruction of Israel if it loses in November.

I am an Israeli-American Jew and, like many of my Jewish friends, I worry about the safety of my family, friends and community. But although anti-Semitism reached new levels after Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, it trajectory started with Trump.

In the counter-terrorism organization that I head, Intelligence group SITEwe saw America’s extremist landscape expand during the 2016 election cycle. Racist, anti-Semitic and conspiracy online communities have gained new influence over political discourse and at times took credit for Trump’s victory.

As such rhetoric and threats surfaced, Trump consistently refused to disavow them, and anti-Semites rejoiced. “Glorious Leader Donald Trump Refuses to Condemn Troll Stormtroopers” read the title neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin in May 2016. It was posted on his website: Daily Stormernamed after the Nazi Party Der Stürmer newspaper.

Anglin later said Huffington Post that he interpreted Trump’s silence “as approval.”

Trump gave these communities unconditional support when, in February 2017, just two weeks into his presidency, he signed an executive order changing the US Countering Violent Extremism program to focus exclusively on Islamist extremism, eliminating white supremacists from its sphere of action. It was essentially a green light for the far right, and white supremacists celebrated the act.

“Every move he made was fucking AMAZING,” wrote a member of the white nationalist forum Stormfront.

Dangerous hate speech quickly turned into action. On August 11, 2017, far-right anti-Semites gathered at a rally in Charlottesville, chanting, “Jews will not replace us.” Often forgotten details of that day include men dressed in uniform and carrying semi-automatic rifles standing across the street from the local Congregation Beth Israel synagogue during Shabbat prayers.

For Trump, it was an easy opportunity to demonstrate moral clarity. Instead, he famously said that “there were very good people on both sides.”

While Trump and his supporters continue to deny the meaning of this statement, the fact is that the “good people” are now bolder than ever.

On October 27, 2018, a neo-Nazi killed 11 Jewish worshipers and wounded six others during Shabbat services at the temple. Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Trump paid lip service to the attack as “pure evil,” but instead of changing policies on domestic terrorism or guns— anything essentially he said“If there had been an armed guard inside the temple, they would have been able to stop him.”

As someone who moved to America to escape the constant threats of war and terrorism, I never thought that the President would so openly abandon Jews to their fate.

Following the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, which left 51 people dead, leaders from around the world signed “Christchurch Call“, a non-binding agreement to combat extremism and radicalization online. Major governments and technology companies have signed the agreement. Trump, however, refused.

This violent extremism continued to spread like wildfire in the United States and around the world, including during the April 2019 synagogue shooting in Poway, California.

“It’s not for nothing that 2019 was the first year in our lives as Americans that my husband and I agreed not to hang a mezuzah on our front door,” I wrote in Saints and soldiersmy recent book on the trajectories of far-right and jihadist extremists. Unfortunately, we still take precautions to this day.

But the harm Trump did to American Jews was not just his embrace of that hatred. So often it seemed like he was trying his best to make things worse.

Trump has played heavily on QAnon, the most sweeping anti-Semitic conspiracy theory of the 21st century. QAnon reimagines blood libel myths and other anti-Jewish stereotypes. Trump refused disavow QAnon, and in September 2022 he reposted an image of himself wearing a Q pin on his lapel with the QAnon slogan “The Storm Is Coming.”

Trump even hosted a Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and an ardent anti-Semitic rapper Youex Kanye West, at his Mar-a-Lago home just a couple of months later in November of that year. He later claimed that he was unaware of Fuentes’s views, but was certainly aware of Ye’s month of vocal anti-Semitic remarks that preceded the dinner. Trump also told his chief of staff like: “Hitler did some good things.”

Hitler And good things in the same sentence. From the American President.

Trump has long relied on deflecting his anti-Semitic record. On the one hand, he uses his Jewish daughter and son-in-law as props. On the other hand, he positions himself as a defender of Jews, flaunting his so-called support for Israel.

However, when addressing Israel, Trump requirements loyalty on the part of American Jews. He threatens that Israel will cease to exist if he is not elected. Last year on Rosh Hashanah weekend he stated in a post on their Truth Social platform: “Just a quick reminder to the liberal Jews who voted for the destruction of America and Israel because you believed false narratives!”

At this time, I have no way of being sure how Kamala Harris will combat anti-Semitism or address other Jewish issues if she wins. But I know how things played out under Trump—and how he chose to open the floodgates of this hatred when it was most important to root it out. The future is also clear: Trump has already announced his intention to take revenge on those who do not support him and pardon all the January 6 insurrectionists, whom he calls “hostages.” Many of these “good people” are Proud Boys, QAnon followers, neo-Nazis and other extremists.

For American Jews, the writing on the wall could not be clearer.