Former President Donald Trump just lately reissued his loyalty check to spiritual Individuals, declaring that he can finest shield their freedoms whereas preemptively blaming members of sure faiths ought to he lose the presidential election in November.
Jews and Catholics can vote for him and ace the check, however those that don’t, he says, “need their head examined.” If he loses, Trump added, “Jewish folks would have lots to do with the loss.”
Among the many Jewish leaders appalled at Trump’s remarks was Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism — an umbrella group for greater than 800 Reform synagogues in North America.
“Your words preemptively blaming Jews for your potential election loss is of a piece with millennia of antisemitic lies about Jewish power,” Jacobs mentioned in a social media publish. “It puts a target on American Jews. And it makes you an ally not to our vulnerable community but to those who wish us harm. Stop.”
Trump’s speeches for years have hewed to divisive “us” versus “them” messaging, however tying these themes to particular spiritual Individuals who oppose him is out of line and even harmful, in response to rhetoric consultants, spiritual leaders and lecturers.
“Non-Jews shouldn’t express public opinions about what is or isn’t good Judaism and non-Catholics shouldn’t express public opinions about what is or isn’t good Catholicism,” mentioned Steven Millies, a public theology professor on the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
“Not only is it bad form, but it’s also an ignorant waste of oxygen.”
Requested to reply to criticism from Jewish leaders, Trump marketing campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt despatched statements from herself and several other of Trump’s Jewish supporters. The statements didn’t instantly tackle the potential blaming of Jews for a Trump defeat; somewhat, they depicted Trump as a stronger supporter of Israel than President Joe Biden and Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s newest provocative feedback got here in a span of 4 days. His warnings about Jewish voters had been in Sept. 19 speeches to Jewish donors and the Israeli-American Council in Washington. His remarks about Catholics got here on Sept. 22 in a publish on Reality Social.
Matthew Boedy, who research spiritual rhetoric as a professor on the College of North Georgia, mentioned Trump has adopted religious warfare rhetoric, which is commonplace in sure Christian circles.
“Trump always makes his religious followers — especially Christians — choose. They have to choose him over pluralism, over morality, over evangelism,” mentioned Boedy, a Protestant.
“If God is already on your side theologically, it’s not a far leap to say he should be on your side politically. That isn’t new to American politics,” Boedy mentioned. “Trump is only making that divide advantageous to him. He’s furthering that which was there, but he is also adding his own weight to it. Making it worse.”
Trump on the Israeli American Council Nationwide Summit on Sept. 19, 2024.
David Gibson, director of the Middle on Faith and Tradition at Jesuit-run Fordham College, mentioned that in previous elections, “for a non-Catholic like Trump to be setting himself up as the savior of Catholics, or Jews for that matter, would have been political insanity.”
Gibson additionally recommended that Trump’s powerful stance on immigration, which incorporates requires mass deportations, is at odds with Catholic educating.
“Catholics listening to the increasingly Nativist rhetoric on immigration from Trump and even his running mate, JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, ought to have their hearts examined if they support that,” Gibson mentioned.
Professor Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M College, mentioned typical politicians search to hook up with voters primarily based on shared coverage beliefs, not by demanding spiritual loyalty.
“But Trump isn’t a typical politician, and he’s very concerned about loyalty,” she mentioned. “He divides the world up into ‘us’ versus ‘them’ and tries to use those divisions to gain power.”
“It’s especially dangerous to attempt to divide people based upon religious identity,” mentioned Mercieca, writer of ″Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.” “The kind of language Trump is using here is more like that used by an authoritarian personality cult leader.”
Trump’s latest remark about blaming Jews if he loses got here at an occasion that additionally featured Jewish megadonor Miriam Adelson, widow of the late on line casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. She launched Trump as “a true friend of the Jewish people.”
Among the many pro-Trump statements supplied to The Related Press by Leavitt was one from Ellie Cohanim, who served through the Trump administration as deputy particular envoy for combating antisemitism.
Trump “is absolutely correct in challenging our assumptions about voting on auto-pilot and failing to comprehend that the Democrat Party, which has been hijacked by its far-left base, is no longer a home for the Jewish people,” Cohanim’s assertion mentioned.
Adelson and Cohanim symbolize the portion of U.S. Jews that strongly helps Trump. In 2020, he obtained about 30% of Jewish Individuals’ votes in comparison with 70% for Biden, in response to AP VoteCast.
The criticism of Trump’s latest remarks got here from the middle in addition to the left of the nationwide Jewish neighborhood.
The American Jewish Committee — a outstanding advocacy group that strives to broadly symbolize Jews within the U.S. and overseas — issued a sharply vital assertion. It took difficulty with Trump’s suggestion that if 40% of the U.S. Jewish citizens voted for him, “That means 60% are voting for the enemy.”
“Setting up anyone to say ‘we lost because of the Jews’ is outrageous and dangerous,” the AJC mentioned. “Thousands of years of history have shown that scapegoating Jews can lead to antisemitic hate and violence.”
“Some Jews will vote for President Trump and some will vote for Vice President Harris,” the AJC added. “None of us, by supporting the candidate we choose, is voting for the enemy.’”
To the left of heart, a harsh denunciation of Trump got here from Lauren Maunus, political director of IfNotNow — a corporation of U.S. Jews that has accused the Israeli authorities of oppressive insurance policies towards Palestinians and protested Israel’s navy offensive in Gaza.
“Trump doubled down on his longstanding pattern of scapegoating Jews,” Maunus mentioned. “Make no mistake: This is a clear and flagrant instruction to his fanatical base of extremists to target Jews with retributive violence if he should lose.”
Some Jews discovered a optimistic twist to Trump’s remarks, as Betsy Frank of Mattituck, New York, conveyed in a letter revealed Sept. 23 in The New York Instances.
“As a proud Jewish woman who believes in Israel’s right to defend itself but supports the United States and everything it stands for even more, I would not vote for Donald Trump for any office,” she wrote. “If he loses the election, I will gladly take the blame.”
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