Fox Tried to Silence Us & They Failed
This week, Donald Trump had dinner with Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Oh, to be a fly on the wall of that dinner conversation, which might have included an effort to settle the $10 billion defamation lawsuit Trump filed against Murdoch after The Wall Street Journal published details of his close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe the dinner conversation also included Trump thanking Murdoch for refusing to accept JDCA’s six-figure buy on Fox News (as the Daily Kos notes in this article, both occurred at the same time).
This isn’t outside the realm of possibility, considering that Trump declared on Fox News in October 2024 that Fox shouldn’t air negative ads about him, and threatened that if it did, he’d appeal directly to Murdoch to remove them. It appears that something like this arrangement continues to this day, because last week Fox News refused to air JDCA’s national ad, which demonstrates in just 30 seconds why two-thirds of Americans believe ICE has gone “too far.”
Despite Fox’s efforts to silence us, JDCA’s ad aired this week on MS NOW and CNN, as well as digital platforms, and we are continuing and expanding our national ad campaign. This ad, which reached more than 11 million Americans on television this past week alone, is making an impact – as we see public opinion continuing to shift and pressure Congress, which is currently refusing to provide additional funds for ICE without reforms – and we hope you’ll support our efforts to reach even more people with this powerful message consistent with our Jewish values.
Watch and share JDCA’s newest ad.
You may have seen a pro-ICE ad running during the Super Bowl, along with pro-ICE billboards in San Francisco, all paid for by a newly created organization with deep pockets and a scant paper trail. We’re proud to present clear opposition to ICE’s brutal tactics on the national stage, shared with full transparency and consistent with public opinion and our values. While Trump’s approach to immigration helped him get elected in 2024, public opinion has significantly turned against his reckless and cruel approach to immigration enforcement in his second term.
Under Trump, ICE has terrorized our communities, and we are proud to take action and stand with immigrants and American citizens alike in Minneapolis and beyond. But the ad’s message doesn’t end there. We also highlight in the ad that the White House is recruiting for ICE using white nationalist and neo-Nazi propaganda.
This week, the staffer at the Department of Labor who was responsible for posting a video last month echoing one of the central slogans used by Hitler was promoted to help run digital communications at the Department of Homeland Security. As Democratic Leader Schumer concluded, “In the Trump administration, posting neo-Nazi content gets you a promotion. This type of behavior should be disqualifying. Instead, Trump and Noem give you a bigger platform to spew hate.”
Also this week, Trump nominee Jeremy Carl – a “legit white nationalist,” according to Senator Murphy – was considered for a high-level role at the State Department, despite his long and well-documented record of antisemitic, racist, and misogynistic views. At his nomination hearing, during which he defended the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory, Senator Shaheen and Senator Rosen called out Carl’s antisemitic views, including his statement that “Jews have often loved to play the victim.” As Senator Shaheen pointed out, Jeremy Carl had “tweeted more than 850 times, appeared on five podcasts, and repeated this language…This is a pattern.”
It’s also a pattern that white nationalists have been embraced and even echoed by the Trump White House. That’s why we highlighted the White House’s use of white nationalism in ICE recruitment in JDCA’s ad, as well as the fact that Trump-aligned podcaster Joe Rogan appeared to demonstrate disgust with ICE’s tactics, asking last month on his podcast, “Are we really going to be the Gestapo? Where’s your papers? Is that what we’ve come to?”
Sadly, the answer to Rogan’s rhetorical question may be yes – for now – but it doesn’t have to stay that way. We’re demanding change, including at the ballot box in November. That’s why we’re continuing to raise our voice with this ad, and we need your help to ensure it continues to spread throughout the country.
Please join us by sharing our ad campaign. Thank you for your partnership.
Shabbat Shalom,
Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America