Former President Donald Trump not too long ago reissued his loyalty take a look at to spiritual Individuals, declaring that he can greatest 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 take a look at, however those that don’t, he says, “need their head examined.” If he loses, Trump added, “Jewish individuals 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 stated in a social media submit. “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 non secular Individuals who oppose him is out of line and even harmful, in accordance with rhetoric consultants, non secular 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,” stated 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 answer criticism from Jewish leaders, Trump marketing campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt despatched statements from herself and a number of other of Trump’s Jewish supporters. The statements didn’t immediately handle the potential blaming of Jews for a Trump defeat; fairly, they depicted Trump as a stronger supporter of Israel than President Joe Biden and Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Jewish Americans and Jewish leaders around the world recognize that President Trump did more for them and the State of Israel than any President in history,” Leavitt stated by way of e mail. “The bottom line is that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden cave to Far-Left extremists and terrorists while President Trump will protect Jewish Americans and put American citizens first.”
Trump’s newest provocative feedback got here in a span of 4 days. His warnings about Jewish voters have 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 submit on Fact Social.
Matthew Boedy, who research non secular rhetoric as a professor on the College of North Georgia, stated Trump has adopted non secular warfare rhetoric, which is commonplace in sure Christian circles.
“Those who gave him that rhetoric saw Satan or evil as the enemy. Now that enemy is anyone — Jew, Christian, Muslim — who stands in his way,” Boedy stated by way of e mail, calling it harmful to democracy and faith.
“Trump always makes his religious followers — especially Christians — choose. They have to choose him over pluralism, over morality, over evangelism,” stated 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 stated. “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.”
David Gibson, director of the Middle on Faith and Tradition at Jesuit-run Fordham College, stated 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.”
“But it’s Trump, and conservatives who would attack a Democrat for such language are cheering for the Republican nominee,” Gibson added in an e mail. “There are many reasons, the most obvious is that they like Trump more than they heed their own church.”
Gibson additionally urged that Trump’s powerful stance on immigration, which incorporates requires mass deportations, is at odds with Catholic instructing.
“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 stated.
Professor Jennifer Mercieca, a historian of American political rhetoric at Texas A&M College, stated typical politicians search to connect with voters based mostly on shared coverage beliefs, not by demanding non secular loyalty.
“But Trump isn’t a typical politician, and he’s very concerned about loyalty,” she stated. “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,” stated Mercieca, creator 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 throughout 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 stated.
Adelson and Cohanim characterize 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 accordance with 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 distinguished advocacy group that strives to broadly characterize Jews within the U.S. and overseas — issued a sharply crucial assertion. It took subject 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 stated. “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 middle, a harsh denunciation of Trump got here from Lauren Maunus, political director of IfNotNow — a company of U.S. Jews that has accused the Israeli authorities of oppressive insurance policies towards Palestinians and protested Israel’s army offensive in Gaza.
“Trump doubled down on his longstanding pattern of scapegoating Jews,” Maunus stated. “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 constructive twist to Trump’s remarks, as Betsy Frank of Mattituck, New York, conveyed in a letter printed 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.”
