Less than two weeks after Donald Trump hosted antisemitic rapper Kanye West and his white nationalist and Holocaust-denying pal Nick Fuentes at a Mar-a-Lago dinner, the former president said on Friday that Jewish leaders “should be ashamed of themselves” for their “lack of loyalty.”
“How quickly Jewish leaders forgot that I was the best, by far, president for Israel,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after posting an op-ed from a far-right conspiracy theorist who said that Trump did more for Israel and the “Jewish people than anyone in history.”
“This lack of loyalty to their greatest friends and allies is why large numbers in Congress, and so many others, have stopped giving support to Israel,” he added.
Trump’s post was startling but not surprising, given his inflammatory dinner with Ye and Fuentes and his pointed silence afterward about their antisemitism.
Ye’s Twitter account was restricted in October after he vowed in a tweet that he was going “death con 3 on Jewish people.” Days after his dinner with Trump, Ye told right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, “I like Hitler” and “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.” Yet Trump has not condemned his remarks.
Ye’s Twitter account was again suspended earlier this month after he posted a Star of David intertwined with a swastika.
Trump has only said of his dinner that Ye expressed no antisemitism while they were dining. He claimed he had no idea who Fuentes was, though witnesses said he praised him as they discussed issues.
Accusing the Jewish community of disloyalty as Trump did is itself an antisemitic attack that goes back centuries.
In the op-ed Trump reposted on Truth Social, conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root dismissed all criticism of Trump’s controversial dinner. Root called Ye “mentally disturbed” and Fuentes a “stranger” the former president did not expect.
Responses to Trump’s latest comment were muted on Truth Social. But Jewish groups quickly blasted Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dinner after it occurred and his refusal to condemn antisemitism.
“We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes, and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them,” Matt Brooks, chief executive of the Republican Jewish Coalition, said in a statement just days after Trump addressed a meeting of the group.
The RJC also retweeted a message from former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman telling Trump his meeting with both the antisemitic Ye and Fuentes was “unacceptable.”
Jonathan Greenblatt, head of the Anti-Defamation League, called Trump’s Mar-a-Lago meeting “appalling.”
Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, who is to return as prime minister, said Sunday he’s waiting for Trump to stand up and condemn antisemitism and the antisemites he dined with.
