Former President Donald Trump said any Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats “hate Israel” and hate “their religion” in an interview published Monday.
Trump made the remarks in an appearance on conservative radio host Sebastian Gorka’s program. Gorka, a former White House aide during the Trump administration, asked the former president about recent Democratic criticism of Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
“I actually think they hate Israel,” Trump replied. “And the Democrat party hates Israel.”
“Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” he added later in the interview. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”
Trump’s comments come after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the nation’s highest-ranking Jewish official, stunned Israel when he called on the country to make “significant course corrections” in Gaza” last week. Those changes, Schumer said, included a new government, a major condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the death toll in Gaza has reportedly topped more than 30,000 people, including many women and children.
“The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after Oct. 7. The world has changed — radically — since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Trump’s remarks — which echo those he’s made in the past — prompted condemnation from Schumer and the White House.
“To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship,” Schumer said in a statement on X. “Trump is making highly partisan and hateful rants.”
To make Israel a partisan issue only hurts Israel and the US-Israeli relationship.
Trump is making highly partisan and hateful rants.
I am working in a bipartisan way to ensure the US-Israeli relationship sustains for generations to come, buoyed by peace in the Middle East. https://t.co/uCMvZWZ8rF
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 18, 2024
A spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s campaign added that the “only person who should be ashamed here is Donald Trump” and criticized the former president’s past remarks about Jewish people.
“Trump is going to lose again this November because Americans are sick of his hateful resentment, personal attacks, and extreme agenda,” James Singer, a spokesperson for the Biden camp, said in a statement.
In the interview Monday, Trump accused Schumer of courting votes and lambasted those who protested in support of Palestinians.
“Don’t forget, when you see those Palestinian marches — even I am amazed at how many people are in those marches,” Trump told Gorka. “And guys like Schumer see that, and to him it’s votes. I think it’s votes more than anything else, because he was always pro-Israel. He’s very anti-Israel now.”