Donald Trump’s Antisemitic Record

JDCA condemns all antisemitism emanating from all sources. We recognize the wisdom of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s dictum that “Antisemitism, or any hate, becomes dangerous in any society when three things happen: when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership; when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby; and when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so.”

This is exactly what is happening in the Trump administration. The following examples illustrate instances of antisemitism espoused by Donald Trump and in the Trump White House:

• Trump has a long record of antisemitism and accusing Jews of disloyalty and has used other antisemitic tropes. 
• Trump said that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 Charlottesville march that featured white supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us.”
• Trump dined with Kanye West and white nationalist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes in 2022 at Mar-a-Lago. 
• Trump has repeated invoked Hitler and the Nazis, including reportedly expressing an interest in having “Hitler’s generals.” His campaign also released a video calling for the “creation of a unified reich.” 
• On his first day in office, Donald Trump pardoned, commuted the sentences of, and released from jail more than 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6 insurrection, including the heads of extremist militias convicted of sedition.
• Two close Trump advisors, Elon Musk and Steve Bannon, have made what appear to be Nazi salutes and have not apologized or clarified their intentions. White supremacists interpret this as a sign they have support within the Trump administration.
• On March 12, 2025, Trump said that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer – the highest-ranking Jewish American elected official – “is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned. You know, he’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore,” again suggesting that Jews who are “disloyal” to him are not sufficiently Jewish. His use of the term “Palestinian” as a pejorative racial slur is antisemitic, racist, Islamaphobic, and bigoted.
• The Trump administration has appointed people with histories of antisemitism, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism to key positions:
  • Elon Musk has a history of making disturbing comments about Nazis and Jews.
  • FBI Director Kash Patel has ties to controversial figures known for promoting racism, antisemitism, and conspiracy theories.
  • Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent has ties to neo-Nazis and white nationalists.
  • Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Darren Beattie was fired in 2018 after CNN revealed he spoke at a conference attended by white nationalists and said that “competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work.”
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth supports a new Christian crusade.
  • Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. peddled baseless conspiracy theories that undermined public health, including that Jews engineered COVID-19.
  • Trump’s deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense, Kingsley Wilson, is a prolific purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
• The Trump administration is cutting funding to agencies that work to prevent antisemitism, including the Department of Education, which enforces Title VI complaints about antisemitism on campus. 
• The Trump administration has frozen the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps keep synagogues, day schools, Jewish community centers, and other places of worship safe from attacks. 
• Michael Wolff, Trump’s biographer, said in an interview published in March 2025 that Trump “doesn’t care about Israel. He doesn’t care about anything but himself” and that Trump is antisemitic.
• On Friday, March 14, 2025, the head of the Trump Department of Justice’s antisemitism task force – an attorney named Leo Terrell – approvingly retweeted a post about Judaism by an infamous white nationalist.