When Trump said last night that Jews who vote for Democrats were being disloyal, people weren’t exactly sure what he meant. And neither were we but we guessed Israel, and it turns out that’s what he meant.
He reiterates his comments from last night in this video from today. I understand now that some on the right have taken issue with his ‘disloyal’ phrasing, saying he’s using an anti-Semitic trope that implies dual loyalties.
When I posted on it last night, I understood what he meant and it never occurred to me that his use of ‘disloyal’ was problematic. I get it, the whole idea of implying dual loyalties. It’s what people who hate Israel say about Jewish people, suggesting their true, secret loyalty is to the Jewish state and it supersedes any other loyalty they might have. Often these Israel-haters will say a Jewish person is secretly doing the bidding of Israel just because they agree with or support Israel on any given policy.
But that’s not what Trump was saying last night or today. The context of his comments were that Democrats like AOC, Omar and Tlaib are trying to harm Israel and that other Democrats are defending them. Thus, he suggested that Jewish Americans should not be voting for Democrats, saying they were being ‘disloyal’ to Israel.
Perhaps his phrasing was problematic in the strictest sense. I get it. But against the broader context of his comments he clearly wasn’t being anti-Semitic. It was quite the opposite.
So at the end of the day, I can’t get up in arms about his phrasing. But I did want to be honest with you about my position on this because I know there are some out there who will accuse us of always defending Trump no matter what he says. And that’s just not the case.