Trump is now echoing the same antisemitic tropes used by the Nazis

Donald Trump has accused Jewish-American people who vote for Democrats of “great disloyalty”. His words have caused outrage. And some people have pointed out that he seems to be directly echoing Hitler’s words against Jewish people.

“One of the most dangerous, deadly accusations Jews have faced”

Trump’s comments were the latest in his racist campaign against Democratic congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. He was recently branded a “bully” for encouraging an Israeli ban on them visiting occupied Palestine.

https://twitter.com/D4Disgusted/status/1164126016547250176

Indeed, one recent poll showed that around 60% of Jewish-Americans blame Trump (at least partially) for recent antisemitic massacres. And there’s no doubt that Trump’s racism has emboldened far-right violence:

https://twitter.com/whitewingdove70/status/1163987544276688896

https://twitter.com/ADR_Rocks/status/1164143946752307200

Trump continues to “weaponise and politicise” antisemitism

Israel eventually agreed to let Tlaib visit her grandmother, who lives in the occupied West Bank, if she promised not to advocate boycotting Israel while there. But she declined the offer. And Trump’s response was vile:

Sorry, I don’t buy Rep. Tlaib’s tears. I have watched her violence, craziness and, most importantly, WORDS, for far too long. Now tears? She hates Israel and all Jewish people. She is an anti-Semite. She and her 3 friends are the new face of the Democrat Party. Live with it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019

Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said of this and Trump’s latest comments:

This is yet another example of Donald Trump continuing to weaponise and politicise anti-Semitism. At a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased — due to the president’s emboldening of white nationalism — Trump is repeating an anti-Semitic trope.

A “pro-Israel, pro-peace” Jewish group, meanwhile, pointed out how swiftly Trump’s attacks on Tlaib and Omar turned against all Jewish people:

It is dangerous + shameful for Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent + disloyal.
But it's no surprise that his racist attacks on progressive women of color in Congress have now turned into smears against Jews.https://t.co/NZPpLM1yK1

— J Street (@jstreetdotorg) August 20, 2019

As The Canary has reported, the majority of Jewish-Americans oppose Trump. And J Street highlighted that most vote Democrat too:

Disgusting. The President of the United States just said that over 75% of American Jews are either disloyal or unintelligent. https://t.co/l6qTtZOaIB

— J Street (@jstreetdotorg) August 20, 2019

Logan Bayroff from J Street also said:

It is dangerous and shameful for President Trump to attack the large majority of the American Jewish community as unintelligent and ‘disloyal’. A number of groups noted that accusations of disloyalty have long been made against Jews, including in Europe during the 1930s.

As The Canary previously reported, since coming to power Trump has enabled the kind of antisemitic conspiracy theories that have contributed to rising antisemitic murders. His racist rhetoric, meanwhile, has been emboldening the white supremacists behind many of these attacks.

But this latest attack has taken this up a notch.

When the US president starts to echo Hitler, then we must stand against it. Because if we don’t, the consequences don’t bear thinking about.

Featured image and additional reporting via Press Association