CNN
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Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that “the Jewish people” would be partly to blame if he loses in November, stepping up his persistent criticism of Jewish voters throughout his campaign and insisting that Democrats are placing a “curse” on them.
“I’m not going to say it’s a prediction, but in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I were at 40 percent” in the polls, Trump told Republicans in Washington at an event billed as a protest against anti-Semitism. “If I were at 40 percent, think about it, that means 60 percent would vote for Kamala (Harris), who, in particular, is a bad Democrat. Democrats are bad for Israel, very bad.”
The former president did not cite any specific polls.
Trump has often questioned why American Jews would consider voting for his opponent, repeatedly saying that Jewish Democratic voters “should have their heads examined.”
Trump: ‘If you’re Jewish and you vote for a Democrat, you’re an idiot’
In the first of two speeches Thursday to Jewish groups, Trump warned an audience that included Republican donor Miriam Adelson, who introduced him on stage, that the upcoming U.S. election would be “the most important” in Israel’s history. He said the Jewish state would be “eradicated,” “wiped off the face of the earth” and “cease to exist” if Harris won the presidency. But the former president appeared concerned about what he described as the ingratitude of Jewish voters, who he said should support him in greater numbers because of his record on Israel.
“A poll just came out. I’m at 40 percent,” Trump said, again without specifying the poll. “That means 60 percent of the American people are voting for someone who hates Israel. And I say, it’s going to happen. It’s only because of the Democrats’ hold or curse on you. You can’t let that happen. 40 percent is not acceptable because we have an election to win.”
After calling on Harris to “officially disavow support for all Hamas sympathizers, anti-Semites, enemies of Israel on college campuses and everywhere else,” Trump turned his attention again to Jewish voters.
“Unfortunately, and I have to say this, and it pains me to say this, you’re going to continue to vote for Democrats, and that doesn’t make any sense,” the former president said. “I say all the time that any Jewish person who votes for them, especially now, for them or the Democratic Party, should have their head examined.”
Harris has never claimed the support of any of the groups Trump mentioned. In fact, she has been criticized by some progressive Democrats and young liberals, many of them Jewish, for her refusal to consider a pause in U.S. arms shipments to Israel, as many pro-Palestinian groups have called for, amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Earlier Thursday, the “Uncommitted” movement, which emerged during the Democratic primaries in opposition to the Biden administration’s policies in Israel and Gaza, said it would not endorse Harris after her campaign again rebuffed activists who have called for a halt to U.S. military aid to Israel and an immediate ceasefire.
Later Thursday night, at the Israeli American Council national summit, Trump said he was “not treated properly by voters who happen to be Jewish” in the 2020 election and, for the second time in a matter of hours, said Jewish voters would bear some responsibility if he were defeated this year.
“I gave them the Golan Heights. I gave them the Abraham Accords. I recognized the capital of Israel and I opened the embassy in Jerusalem. And most importantly, I ended the Iran nuclear deal, which was the worst deal ever made in the history of Israel and in the history of the Middle East,” Trump said.
“I was there for four years, I gave them billions and billions of dollars. I was the best friend Israel ever had, and still today, in 2020, I did all these things, so now the Jews have no excuses,” he added, repeating an anti-Semitic cliché that American Jews have dual loyalties to the United States and Israel.
Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish and has been an outspoken critic of anti-Semitism, including during protests in the United States against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Yet Trump has repeatedly called his rival “anti-Israel” and “anti-Jewish.”
Hear what VP Harris’ husband told Jewish voters about her stance on Israel
“You have to defeat Kamala Harris more than any other people on earth,” Trump said, addressing Jewish voters in the audience. “Israel, I believe, has to defeat her. You know that? And I’ve never said this before: More than any other people on earth, Israel has to defeat her.”
He then promised to “make Israel great again.”
Amy Spitalnick, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and a former aide to Democratic officials in New York, accused Trump of using “a speech about anti-Semitism as an opportunity to adopt anti-Semitic tropes and attack the American Jewish community.”
“Treating Jews and Israel as political footballs harms the security of Jews, Israel, and all of us. Dividing Jews into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ camps and engaging in tropes of dual loyalty further normalizes anti-Semitism,” Spitalnick added. “This is not about partisan politics – it’s about the fundamental security of the Jewish community.”
In an interview in March, Trump said that any Jew who votes Democrat “hates his religion” and hates “everything about Israel.”
‘It’s very offensive to American Jews’: CNN panel criticizes Trump’s recent outburst
He made similar statements invoking anti-Semitic stereotypes during his first two presidential campaigns.
“You won’t support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine,” Trump told the Republican Jewish Coalition in December 2015. “I’m a dealmaker like you, we’re dealmakers.”
But Trump’s open frustration with Jewish voters has become a more frequent theme after his 2020 election defeat.
“Jews who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough. Does that make sense to you?” he told an Orthodox Jewish media outlet in 2021.
In a social media post in 2022, the former president — using an argument he alluded to Thursday — complained that “wonderful evangelicals value (his record in Israel) much more than people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the United States.”
“American Jews need to pull themselves together,” he writes, “and appreciate what they have in Israel – before it’s too late!”
In July, Harris affirmed her “unwavering commitment to Israel” after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.
Following pro-Hamas protests surrounding the Israeli leader’s visit, Harris said in a statement: “I condemn any individual associated with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which is sworn to destroy the State of Israel and kill Jews.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
