Trump's Jewish Megadonors Are Making a Disastrous Mistake - Opinion - Haaretz.com
Former U.S. President Donald Trump has essentially clinched the Republican presidential nomination and recent polling suggests he leads Joe Biden in five of six must-win battleground states.
A Trump win would be a disaster for America, and also for American Jews and Israel.
Not surprisingly, Jewish Americans at the moment are focused on Israel’s war in Gaza.Nonetheless, the American election is approaching in less than a year. Even if Israel has a won a convincing victory by then, a Trump presidency would be a devastating blow to Israel’s hopes for a secure future and to American Jewish hopes for a return to the sense of safety and wellbeing they have long enjoyed.
But Trump-supporting Jewish conservatives do not see the problem.
At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual Leadership Summit, held last month in Las Vegas, Trump was greeted with a sickening display of adoration and applause. He came hoping to open Jewish megadonors’ wallets and likely succeeded. As every other Republican candidate continues to trail Trump in the polls by more than 30 points, these rich, very conservative machers have convinced themselves Trump is both inevitable and God’s gift to Israel and the Jews.
Audience members applauding Donald Trump at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab in Las Vegas October 29.Credit: Steve Marcus/Reuters
It's not as if they fail to see the former president’s ugly side. Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot and the latest Jewish megadonor to join the fold, acknowledged in the op-ed announcing his support that he too is “offended” by some of the things that Trump said. Still, according to Marcus, Trump’s “brash style” is no reason not to support him, given all that he has done for America and for Israel. After all, Hamas is now murdering Jews and killing innocent babies and Holocaust survivors. Surely, Trump’s “brashness” is less significant than his “decisiveness and courage,” which will intimidate America’s enemies and prevent such attacks from happening again.
Marcus is echoing what we have heard from others in the Jewish pro-Trump crowd: As one megadonor in Las Vegas admitted to Haaretz, he is “an asshole.” But, as these rich Republicans are quick to tell us, he is good for America, and very, very good for the things Jews care about.
The problem, of course, is that this is a total misread of the Trump phenomenon, American realities, and of Jewish experience.
Perhaps Trump apologists should consider the following:
First, Trump attempted a violent coup in the waning days of his term, and since has worked non-stop to corrode democracy and delegitimize elections. As a result, our liberal democracy is in profound danger, and his election could lead to an unraveling of the whole system. Just last week, Trump proclaimed in an interview his intention, as president, to use the courts against political rivals.
The pro-Trump crowd seems to have forgotten that Jewish security in America is directly related to the stability of America’s democracy, and to America’s pluralism, relative tolerance, and constitutional guarantees of freedom and equality.
Jericho Steve, a supporter of the January 6th defendants and former President Donald Trump, protests outside federal court, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Washington, where members of the far-right extremist group the Proud Boys were on trial.Credit: Jacquelyn Martin /AP
Stop-the-steal politics is not “brashness.” It is an embrace of preening insurrectionists and would-be authoritarians, and it is support for an America in which Jews will never be safe.
Second, Trump is a man lacking in basic decency, and in the absence of decency it is impossible to build a stable America. He has been credibly accused of multiple sexual assaults and faces felony charges in four separate cases.
He’s also a pathological liar and has debased our language of political discourse as no president ever has. And when language is debased, words cease to have any meaning. The inevitable result? Hatred and bigotry, including anti-Semitism.
Note to pro-Trump Jewish donors: The explosion of antisemitism in America has left American Jews bewildered and frightened. And what role has Trump played in this terrifying new reality? He has fanned the flames of Jew-baiting by an endless stream of statements that have played into antisemitic stereotypes.
He has talked about dual loyalty and the connection of Jews to money, and attacked Israeli leaders by name, in crass language. He delights in his friendship with Kanye West, well known for his antisemitism. He has been consistently reluctant to disavow far-right, neo-Nazi elements on the outer fringes of his party.
Draped in an Israeli flag, Elinor Ben David, left, hugs her daughter Liel Abissidan, 8, as they wait for a rally in support of Israel to start, at the Holocaust Memorial Miami Beach, Oct. 10, 2023, in Miami Beach, Florida.Credit: Wilfredo Lee /AP
This is a vulnerable moment for American Jews. The social fabric of our country is dangerously combustible. Jews desperately need a president who will explicitly and aggressively condemn antisemitism and defend the Jewish community. Trump is incapable of doing this, and if he is elected president again, American Jews will pay a heavy price.
Finally, the Trump apologists are forever telling us that despite a record of unfortunate misstatements, the former president is a great champion of Israel, and that alone justifies Jewish support.
But it doesn’t.
The Trump administration had real accomplishments on Israel. It was right to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and the Abraham Accords were a significant achievement. But in the years since, the world and the American political scene have changed dramatically. Trump has not.
Israel today has been battered by its enemies and faces an existential threat. It needs help from an American president with the diplomatic skills and political vision that Trump simply does not possess.
To begin with, the party that Trump leads has drifted increasingly into isolationism. There is still some pro-Israel pressure, coming mostly from the evangelical elements of the base. But the foreign policy leaders of the Republican party today are J.D. Vance of Ohio, Mike Lee of Utah, and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Their interest in the world ranges from little to none. And even more so than the “America First” voices of the 1930s, they want their party to forget about others and worry only about their own.
In what may be a years-long Israeli war with Hamas, is this a party that will back Israel with aid, equipment, and aircraft carriers It seems unlikely.
Israeli soldiers take position during the ongoing ground operation of the Israeli army against Hamas, in a location given as Gaza, in this handout picture released Monday.Credit: Israeli Defense Forces/ REUTERS
The Republicans are already abandoning Ukraine, and as Nikki Haley said recently, the isolationists who want to turn their backs on Ukraine will eventually turn their backs on Israel as well.
And what of Trump? Does he have the stature, the convictions, and the focus to take on the isolationists, to rally his party to stand behind Israel, and to return to the tough, internationalist foreign policy that America needs?
Not even close. When it comes to foreign policy, Trump seems to have no convictions at all. Most of what he says on the subject reflects whatever grudge he may hold at the moment against a given foreign leader, friend or foe. And he certainly lacks the deep and profound passion Biden has demonstrated, and articulated repeatedly for Israel.
And this too: Trump’s fawning, sycophantic relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putinremains intact, as disturbing now as it always was. And the difference, of course, is that Putin today is a close ally of Hamas and Iran and a direct threat to Israel. And yet there has not been the slightest sign of an adjustment by Trump to reflect today’s realities.
If the Jewish megadonors in the Republican ranks want to support Trump, that’s their right. Still, I have to wonder: Is this due to monumental gullibility? Self-interest dressed up as altruism? Flat-out ignorance of Jewish history and Jewish values?
I don’t know. But what I do know is that the Trump candidacy threatens Jewish lives, Jewish interests, Israel’s well-being, and everything American Jews hold dear in America. Now is the time to wake up and pay attention.
Eric H. Yoffie, a rabbi, writer and teacher in Westfield, New Jersey, is a former president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Twitter: @EricYoffie