None of This is Normal

If I were to summarize the state of American politics in five words, it would be “none of this is normal.” It’s not normal for a U.S. president to generate more than $2 billion in personal wealth, triple his income from the previous year, and acquire nearly $5.5 million of profit per day in his first year in office. It’s not normal for the U.S. president to bulldoze parts of the White House, erect unauthorized monuments in his honor, and threaten to destroy a cultural institution if he can’t affix his name to its facade. It’s not normal for the U.S. president to ban members of the press corps because he doesn’t like their coverage and continue to restrict press access despite a federal judge ordering the White House to reverse course.

We could fill books with all the things that are not normal about Donald Trump’s second term, but listing them in writing doesn’t do it justice. What gets lost in the morass is the scale of his crimes and corruption, and the extent to which it’s abnormal. No U.S. president has ever come close to any one of these offenses, and Donald Trump manages to not just break laws and norms, but to shatter them. It’s also not normal that Republicans in Congress have allowed it to happen with zero accountability, oversight, or consequences for nearly two years.

As Donald Trump bulldozes our democracy, economy, military, and standing in the world, Republicans in Congress are complicit. Their inaction and unwillingness to hold Trump accountable have emboldened him to act with impunity, as we have seen in the lead-up to the midterms. In this election, Democrats are running to hold him accountable, restore necessary guardrails, and defend democracy from the persistent and growing threat posed by this White House.

Elections are a binary choice, and any vote for a Republican in 2026 is a vote for Donald Trump. It’s a vote for his cruelty. His extremism. His lies. His election denialism. His economic destruction. And his endless war. If ten years into this charade anyone’s still counting on a “moderate” Republican to take a meaningful stand against Trump’s agenda, I have a gaudy gold-plated statue to sell you.

In this context, it’s both inaccurate and irresponsible to equate the challenges Jewish Americans face on “both sides” of the political aisle in the midterms. While we at JDCA have condemned – and refuse to support – some Democrats whose views are not aligned with the majority of American Jews, there are no Democrats running for office whose inclination is to disregard the U.S. Constitution. There are no Democrats running for office who have repeatedly attacked and threatened our democracy. No Democrat offered (two weeks ago) to bribe every American adult for their vote and encouraged their supporters to “cheat like hell” in the midterms.

We can reject false equivalency without claiming Democrats are perfect. There are distinct challenges with a handful of Democratic candidates this cycle, including and especially for American Jews. But we do a disservice to ourselves and our values to equate the vast majority of Democrats and our leadership, whom we’re proud to support, with an extreme fringe they’ve never represented. American Jews are safest when American democracy is strongest, and there’s no equivalence between the dire threat to democracy posed by the Republican Party in service to Donald Trump and a handful of Democratic candidates with views out of step with our own.

American Jews have an important role to play in the midterms. We are a critical part of a winning Democratic coalition and a distinct segment of the electorate whose votes have largely been shaped by our values. Democracy has been the top issue driving the Jewish vote since 2022, only to be narrowly surpassed in 2026 by affordability and cost of living, which also speaks to our values in terms of economic justice and opportunity. On these issues, it’s painfully clear why the Democratic Party in the Trump era will continue to serve as our political home.

Antisemitism is the third most important issue shaping the Jewish vote in 2026, and in recent years, we have seen this rising danger surface on both sides of the aisle. But the distinction here too is that the President of the United States has explicitly engaged in and exploited the rise of antisemitism to further his political agenda, including extorting and defunding educational institutions. He’s used white supremacist dog whistles and signaling to recruit for ICE. His first act in office was to pardon nearly 1,600 right-wing extremists, including antisemites and white supremacists, who violently attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

There are a range of views on U.S. policy toward Israel among Democrats and Republicans alike, and there’s widespread disapproval of the current Israeli government and Netanyahu among Americans, including American Jews. There are also serious reasons to question Trump’s own commitment to Israel, including his willingness to completely capitulate to Iran in order to end his endless war, which led to a collapse of support for Trump among Israelis themselves. Last week, Vice President JD Vance proclaimed that Washington cannot “be subservient to the State of Israel,” which projects animus toward Israel – beyond Netanyahu – that Vance and others in Trump’s orbit have espoused throughout his second term.

None of Donald Trump’s actions are normal, and they’re a direct threat to the many Jewish values that guide our lives and shape our vote. Don’t allow the overly simplified, false equivalence, “problems on both sides” narrative blind you in this election. In 2026, Democrats are really the only choice for Jewish voters because a vote for any Republican is a vote for Donald Trump, and we normalize his presidency to the detriment and peril of our community, country, and values.

Shabbat Shalom,

Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America