Trump makes it okay to hate
- On This Day In The Trump Administration
- Apr 23, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 25, 2024
April 24: On This Day In 2017
Trump’s willingness to espouse hatred has had a material impact on —among others — immigrants, Black people, the LGBTQIA+ community, and, as we see here, Jews.
Trump’s anti-Jew rhetoric appeared early on during his 2016 campaign, when he tweeted a pic of Hillary Clinton with a backdrop of $100 bills next to a six-sided star. “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” it blared. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the implications here. Nonetheless, Trump claimed it was a “sheriff’s star,” not the Jewish Star of David.
There have also been times when Trump referred to Jews as being money-focused, or having “divided loyalties” against the United States, or that some are “not nice people.” The list goes on. He said Democrats are “anti-Israel” and “anti-Jewish,” despite the fact that over 70% of American Jews vote for Democratic candidates. He retweets a guy whose profile complains about there being too many Jews.
And, of course, President Donald Trump praised some neo-Nazis in Virginia as “very fine people.”
So Jon Stewart summarizes the statements by Trump and his friends this way: “The word anti-semitic just doesn’t even carry it anymore. It’s just weird, Jew paranoia Bulls**t” he said.
Charlie Sykes wrote: “For most Americans, including Republicans, the resurgence of hatred against Jewish people is the return of an ancient evil. But Donald Trump, who has refused to disavow his dinner with two of the country’s most virulent antisemites, apparently sees it very differently. He sees (antisemitism) as a constituency.”
The commentator continued: “He is unapologetic about associating with overt neo-Nazis, and unwilling to issue full-throated denunciations of antisemitism.
“These are his people,” Sykes notes.
So, what’s really the impact? The data show that somebody has been listening and taking notes.
The Anti-Defamation League released a trends analysis OTDI 2017. “Overall, the number of acts targeting Jews and Jewish institutions rose 34 percent in 2016,” reported Reuters. That’s the year Trump first began to dominate the nation’s political discourse. "The 2016 presidential election and the heightened political atmosphere played a role in the increase," the ADL concluded in its report.
But then the numbers “jumped 86 percent in the first quarter of 2017,” when Trump took office, and remained elevated throughout his four years.
Trump seems to glorify violence both in general and against his specific enemies. When it becomes okay to hate anybody, it becomes okay to vandalize, intimidate, and cause harm to everybody.
Dive Deeper
Jewish Democratic Council of America’s chronology of Trump’s antisemitic rhetoric
Reuters has the ADL’s report on antisemitic acts spiking early in Trump’s presidency:
The Institute for National Security Studies has the data
Charlie Sykes is quoted here in Politico
The Hill has the Jon Stewart story
Summary: Trump makes it okay to hate