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Jewish Support for Trump has Eroded

W

Berl Falbaum

e should be
grateful for
small favors.
That refers to the
diminished support for
Donald Trump from
Jews in the 2018 mid-
term election when
compared to 2016 when
Trump was elected pres-

ident.
In analyzing the midterm, much of
the media focused on the fact that Jews
voted overwhelmingly for Democrats.
But that missed the point; historically,
since the 1930s, Jews usually do.
The news — the good news — is that
several polls found that the Jewish vote
was between 17-19 percent for Trump
and his party, down apparently because
of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic politics.
In the 2014 midterm election, the Jewish
vote for the GOP was 33 percent. In
2016, roughly 25 percent of the Jewish
electorate voted for Trump for president.
So, we can take some solace that after
Trump’s two years as president, Jewish
backing for the president has eroded.
There is another unique element in
the drop of support for Trump that we
have not seen before. Usually, Jewish vot-
ers will punish a candidate more vehe-
mently when they witness anti-Jewish or
anti-Semitic themes.
For instance, Ronald Reagan received

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the highest percentage of the Jewish vote
as a Republican (roughly 39 percent)
when he ran against Jimmy Carter,
whose anti-Jewish bias repelled the
Jewish electorate.
President George H.W. Bush, who
garnered 25 percent of the Jewish vote
in 1988, suffered a backlash in 1992,
receiving only 11 percent — the lowest
ever for a Republican — when he com-
plained, “I’m one lonely little guy” up
against “some powerful political forces”
made up of “a thousand lobbyists on the
Hill.” Bush was referring to lobbying by
AIPAC and other Jewish organizations.
He later apologized for the remark.
But, somehow, Trump has not expe-
rienced such outrage from Jewish voters
despite the fact that he stoked anti-Sem-
itism the likes of which we have not seen
since the days of Fr. William Coughlin of
the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal
Oak and Charles Lindbergh’s “America
First” nationalist campaign, a slogan
Trump proudly adopted.
Jonathan Weisman wrote in
(((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America
in the Age of Trump, that Trump ran the
most anti-Semitic political campaign in
modern U.S. history.

Let’s review a few “lowlights:”
• Trump distributed an anti-Semitic
caricature of Hillary Clinton and ran a
TV campaign ad which could very well
have been produced by the authors of

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the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The
liberal billionaire, George Soros, was one
of four Jews featured in the ad who were
described as people representing “global
special interests.”
• When Linda Lingle, former governor
of Hawaii who is Jewish, spoke at the
GOP convention, the party’s chat room
was flooded with more than 3 million —
that’s 3 million — of the ugliest anti-Se-
mitic slurs. Trump? He said nothing.
Given this record, there is a reason
why David Duke, the former KKK
Grand Wizard, said the night Trump was
elected was the happiest day of his life.
Richard B. Spencer, the white suprem-
acist leader, also celebrated at his rallies
frequently giving the Nazi salute while
shouting “Hail Trump.”

After taking office:
• Trump hired Stephen K. Bannon,
former executive chairman of Breitbart
News that catered to white supremacists
and anti-Semites, as chief strategist.
Bannon appointed Sebastian Gorka
as his assistant. Gorka proudly wore a
pin of the Hungarian Vitezi Rend orga-
nization that had strong ties to Nazi
Germany.
• Trump said that the neo-Nazis who
proclaimed that “Jews will not replace
us” in Charlottesville included some
“very fine people.”
• Trump joined attacks on Soros, whom
his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called an “anti-

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Christ.” Soros had a mail bomb placed
in his mailbox. Over the years, “Soros”
became a code word for “Jew.”
• Almost unbelievably, the Evangelical
Pastor Robert Jeffress, who touts that
Jews will to go hell for their religious
beliefs, was invited to deliver the invo-
cation when the U.S. moved its embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
• After the Pittsburgh massacre, Trump
had to be cajoled by his daughter, Ivanka,
to deliver a consoling speech. As the
press reported, he read such a speech
dutifully from a teleprompter and within
minutes returned to his usual vitriolic
rhetoric.
(Polls show that 72 percent of Jews
hold Trump very or somewhat responsi-
ble for the shootings in Pittsburgh.)
None of the above deals with the scan-
dals, corruption, lies, conflicts of interest,
influence-peddling, abuse of power, 32
indictments (and counting) and sexual
sordidness of Trump and his adminis-
tration.
But we should acknowledge progress
when it occurs. We have two years before
2020 to show, as a people, we reject rac-
ism, anti-Semitism, hate-filled rhetoric,
xenophobia, misogyny and, instead,
value dignity, truthfulness, honesty, char-
acter, decency and integrity. ■

Berl Falbaum, a West Bloomfield resident, is a vet-
eran journalist and author.

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