Former President Trump has derided Jewish Democrats for not being sufficiently strong supporters of Israel amid the war in Gaza.
The MAGA man told right-wing commentator Sebastian Gorka that Jews who do not back his Republican Party hate themselves and their own faith.
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he said late Monday on Gorka’s podcast. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed.”
Trump was apparently triggered by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s speech last week denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and renewing his call for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The former president accused Schumer of turning on Netanyahu because the Brooklyn Democrat is afraid of losing votes of progressive anti-war demonstrators.
“I think it’s votes more than anything else, because he was always pro-Israel,” Trump said. “He’s very anti-Israel now.”
Schumer hit back at Trump, calling his attacks “highly partisan and hateful rants” in a tweet.
The most-senior elected Jewish leader in American history — whose state is home to the largest Jewish population in the U.S. — insisted that his criticism of Netanyahu is designed as tough love for the Jewish state.
“I am working in a bipartisan way to ensure the US-Israeli relationship sustains for generations to come,” Schumer tweeted.
The outburst is not the first time Trump has attacked Jews for being too liberal or not supporting him strongly enough.
“Any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump said in 2022.
American Jews are among the nation’s most liberal voting blocs and regularly deliver 70% or more support for Democrats in presidential elections.
Republicans have sought to use their staunch support for Israel to cut into that edge, with decidedly mixed results.
Anti-Semitism watchdogs say accusations of disloyalty to their own countries or to Israel have been staples of bigotry against Jews for centuries.
Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League said bipartisan and principled American support for Israel is crucial for maintaining the close alliance between the two nations.
“Accusing Jews of hating their religion because they might vote for a particular party is defamatory and patently false,” Greenblatt said.
