Donald Trump Suggests Jewish Voters Could Be Partly to Blame if He Loses to Kamala Harris
DONALD TRUMP – The Republican presidential candidate suggested that Jewish-American voters could be partly responsible if he loses the November 5 election to Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a speech at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington, Trump expressed frustration over his perceived lack of support from Jewish voters, lamenting that Harris was leading among them.
Trump argued that if Harris wins, Israel might not survive beyond two years, claiming that Jewish voters, who tend to support Democrats, would play a role in that outcome. He specifically pointed to a poll, which he claimed showed 60% of American Jews favoring Harris, though it was unclear which poll he was referring to. A recent Pew Research survey, however, found that Harris was leading Trump among Jewish voters by a margin of 65% to 34%.
Trump reflected on his past election results, noting that he received less than 30% of the Jewish vote in both the 2016 election, which he won, and the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. He has made it a priority to win over Jewish voters in key battleground states, recognizing that even a slight shift in their vote could impact the election outcome. In Pennsylvania, for example, which Biden won by 81,000 votes in 2020, there are over 400,000 Jewish voters.
Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, criticized Trump’s comments, arguing that blaming Jewish-Americans for a potential loss does nothing to support them. Morgan Finkelstein, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, also criticized Trump, accusing him of aligning with anti-Semites and emphasizing that his defeat would come from a coalition of Americans from diverse backgrounds standing against his divisiveness.
Despite making these comments, Trump did not address a separate controversy involving North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who was alleged to have made racist and offensive remarks, including calling himself a “black Nazi” and advocating for the return of slavery.