Over and over again, the Trump administration has claimed to be fighting antisemitism while wielding power against its domestic enemies. Yet, at the same time, there’s been a troubling surge in antisemitism among MAGA influencers and even some Trump administration staff.
The Trump right’s pro-Israel antisemitism
The MAGA movement loves Israel — but is increasingly hostile to Jews.
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
Concern for the safety of the Jewish community has been the stated motivation for two of Donald Trump’s most recent aggressive moves — cutting $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University and attempting to deport one of its graduate students, green-card holder Mahmoud Khalil, in retaliation for his pro-Palestinian activism.
Columbia “has fundamentally failed to protect American students and faculty from antisemitic violence and harassment,” the Trump administration wrote in a March 13 letter to the university. The administration is threatening to expand this funding cutoff, investigating over 60 universities and colleges on suspicion of tolerating or encouraging antisemitism.
On the other hand, the first two months of the Trump administration have been marked by continued antisemetic rhetoric and gestures from the president’s allies. Elon Musk did two apparent Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration — a gesture top adviser Steve Bannon later repeated (Musk and Bannon deny performing the gesture intentionally). The Trump administration gave a Pentagon spokesperson job to a woman with a
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