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Donald Trump, the 45th and 47thpresident of the United States, has a history of speech and actions that have been viewed by scholars,Jewish organizations, and the public asantisemitic or fostering a political climate that is hospitable to antisemites. President Trump has also been an outspoken critic ofpro-Palestinian andanti-Israel sentiment in the United States, including oncollege campuses, which he characterizes asantisemitic, and has signed two executive orders to counter antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Critics have alleged that President Trump has views that are simultaneouslypro-Israel andantisemitic.[1] Opinion polls ofAmerican Jews have found that a slight majority regard Trump as antisemitic and a large majority disapprove of his antisemitism policies.[2][3]
According to former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino president John O'Donnell, in the 1990s, Trump said, "Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are little short guys that wearyarmulkes every day."[4]
DuringTrump's 2016 campaign for president,The Times of Israel published a timeline of his antisemitic "controversies", including remarks he made to theRepublican Jewish Coalition invokingtropes about Jews and money.[5] In hisfirst presidency, he was accused of espousing antisemitism on numerous occasions. In a speech at theIsraeli-American Council in 2019, Trump referenced classicantisemitic tropes in his appeal to Jewish voters.[6] Discourse around Trump's relationship withJudaism in America was revived later in his first presidency. In October 2022, Trump called for American Jews to "appreciate Israel before it's too late", aligning with his past claims that American Jews no longer love Israel.[7]
The New York Times has accused the Trump administration of using antisemitic imagery, tropes, anddog whistles in campaign emails, including references toGeorge Soros conspiracy theories, images of money mixed withStars of David, and terminology such as "globalists" and "cabal".[8]
In a speech on July 3, 2025, Trump said, "Think of that: Nodeath tax. Noestate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker - and in some cases,Shylocks and bad people", invoking the trope of Jews asgreedy moneylenders.[9][10]
On August 20, 2019, after a reporter asked "Should there be any change in U.S. aid to Israel?", Donald Trump stated within his answer, "And I think any Jewish people that vote for aDemocrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge orgreat disloyalty." Trump counterposed the Democratic Party to theRepublican Party, which he represented. The utterance caused outrage,[11] shock, and disdain[12] from Jewish leaders and citizens in the United States.[13][14][15] They claimed that the president was perpetuating antisemitic stereotypes.[15][16] Democratic presidential candidateBernie Sanders responded at acampaign rally inIowa City, Iowa, "I am a proud Jewish person, and I have no concerns about voting Democratic. And, in fact, I intend to vote for a Jewish man to become the next president of the United States."[17][18][19]
On November 22, 2022, Trump had a private dinner atMar-a-Lago withYe (formerly known as Kanye West), who broughtNick Fuentes along with him. Fuentes is a prominentHolocaust denier and antisemite, and Ye had made widely reported antisemitic comments during the months before the dinner. Trump later stated that he had not known of Fuentes's beliefs; however, in discussing the dinner, Trump did not condemn his guests' antisemitism.[20] Both Republicans and Democrats criticized his choice to dine with them.[21]
On March 18, 2024, Trump was criticized for claiming "any Jewish person that votes for Democratshates their religion", and that "they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed". Following mounting criticism from Jewish groups, Trump's campaign responded that "Trump is right" and that the Democratic Party "has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal".Jonathan Greenblatt of theAnti-Defamation League called Trump's comments "defamatory and patently false". Chief executive Amy Spitalnick of theJewish Council for Public Affairs claimed that Trump was "further normalizing dangerous antisemites". Trump's claims were accused of evoking anantisemitic trope that Jews have a 'dual loyalty' and are more loyal to Israel than to their own countries. Trump's comments echoed previous comments he made during his presidency by accusing Jews who vote for Democrats as "disloyal".[22] Following his initial comments on March 18, Trump repeatedly accused Jews who voted or intended to vote forJoe Biden of betraying their religious and cultural identities.[23]
Kamala Harris'scampaign and several non-partisan Jewish organizations criticized Trump's comments during an antisemitism conference on September 19 where he stated that "if I don't win this election" then "the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss" and continued criticizing liberal Jews for "voting for the enemy" by claiming the Democratic party had a "hold, or curse" on Jewish Americans.[24][25]
In September 2024, at an event dedicated to countering antisemitism, Donald Trump complained about his lack of support among Jewish voters and stated that Jewish voters would be substantially to blame if he lost the 2024 presidential election, saying that "I'm not going to call this a prediction, but, in my opinion, the Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss if I'm at 40%." In response,Doug Emhoff, the husband of Kamala Harris, said that Trump had "once again fanned the flames of antisemitism by trafficking in tropes blaming and scapegoating Jews."[26] ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt said that Trump had undermined his own message against antisemitism by "employing numerous antisemitic tropes and anti-Jewish stereotypes", including the accusation ofdual loyalty.[27]
In March 2025, Trump made comments denying the Jewishness ofChuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in theUnited States Senate: "As far as I'm concerned, he's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish any more. He's a Palestinian." Trump's remarks were condemned by rights groups as antisemitic andanti-Palestinian.[28][29][30] In response, Schumer alleged that Trump "does not do enough to combat antisemitism...even though I don't think he's antisemitic himself."[31]
In a May 2025 poll of registered US voters who are Jewish, 52% viewed Trump as somewhat or very antisemitic. Sixty-four percent disapproved of Trump's efforts to combat antisemitism, compared to 36% who approved.[32]
In 2025, formerAnti-Defamation League chiefAbraham Foxman denounced the ADL and its new chiefJonathan Greenblatt as well as other Jewish organizations and figures for an allegedly muted response to antisemitism within the Trump administration and among Trump supporters, comparing the response toStockholm syndrome. Regarding the2024 Donald Trump rally at Madison Square Garden, Foxman stated that "There's no question about it: For the American Jewish Committee, the ADL, Conference of Presidents, the federations, all these institutions, if this happened six months ago, they would be out there condemning racism and antisemitism and hate speech."[33]
During his first administration, on December 11, 2019, Trump signedExecutive Order 13899, "Combating Anti-Semitism," aimed at using laws that prohibit institutional discrimination against people based on race, color or national origin to punish discrimination against Jewish people more easily, and classifying opposition to the existence ofIsrael as antisemitism.[34][35]
During hissecond administration, on January 29, 2025, Trump signedExecutive Order 14188, "Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism", which focuses on antisemitism in educational settings, especially in higher education.[36] Trump claimed that there has been an "explosion of antisemitism" in the United States and vowed to arrest and deport "Hamas sympathizers" and "pro-jihadist" student protesters.[37] The executive order has been used in attempts to deport holders ofstudent visas andgreen cards who have expressed pro-Palestinian views,[38] and in investigations into 60 colleges and universities based on their alleged failures to protect students from "antisemitic harassment and discrimination".[39] Such uses have been supported by some Jewish groups and opposed by others,[40] with multiple of the latter groups suggesting that antisemitism is being used as a guise for authoritarianism.[40][41][42]
When polled in May, 49% of registered Jewish voters said that the actions taken against higher education had increased antisemitism, compared to 25% who believed that they reduced antisemitism, and when asked about the arrest and deportation of pro-Palestinian protesters, 61% said that it increased antisemitism, compared to 20% who said it reduced antisemitism.[32] In a September poll of Jewish adults, 60% opposed the administration's withholding of funds from universities due to their alleged failure to combat antisemitism, and three-quarters believed that the administration was using this alleged failure as a "political maneuver" to crack down on free speech and academic freedom and not out of a genuine concern about antisemitism.[43]
Lily Sawyer-Kaplan, a lawyer with theDepartment of Justice'sCivil Rights Division, which enforces federal laws that prohibit various kinds of discrimination, resigned in April 2025, citing pressure "to use antisemitism as a pretext to undermine free speech."[44]
The administration later froze $2.2 billion in research funding toHarvard University, alleging that it had not done enough to combat antisemitism. Harvard sued, and on September 3, JudgeAllison Bourroughs ruled in Harvard's favor, saying she found it "difficult to conclude anything other than that [the Trump administration] used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country's premier universities, and did so in a way that runs afoul of [federal law]". The Trump administration said it would appeal the ruling.[45]
In April 2025, a group of 10 major Jewish-American organizations issued a joint statement denouncing the Trump administration's antisemitism policies. The statement said that "These actions do not make Jews — or any community — safer. Rather, they only make us less safe." The organizations that denounced Trump's antisemitism policies included theUnion for Reform Judaism, theCentral Conference of American Rabbis,HIAS, theReligious Action Center of Reform Judaism, theAmerican Conference of Cantors, theNational Council of Jewish Women, the Conservative movement'sRabbinical Assembly, theReconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and theJewish Council for Public Affairs.[46]
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