‘I Didn’t Know’

Trump supporter and rabid antisemite, Nick Fuentes (Guardian)

If there is anything that should seal the deal with respect to ending support for the former President, the dinner meeting at his Mar-a-Lago home with Kanye West and Nick Fuentes is it.

Trump has been exposed as the extreme narcissist that he is.  He does not care where his support comes from. If Jack the Ripper supported him, he would have invited him to his home too, if like West, he had asked for it.

Trump’s ‘explanation’ for meeting with Fuentes is that he didn’t invite him. West was supposed to come alone – but brought along the uninvited Fuentes. Trump had never met him; didn’t know him or anything about him. Their meeting did not include any antisemitic talk. All Trump saw in Fuentes was a very interesting and supportive person.

Even if we take him at his word, what Trump did NOT do is condemn him once he found out what Fuentes was all about. He is a rabid and outspoken antisemite.

Why didn’t he condemn Fuentes? Because Fuentes has been promoting the idea that the election was stolen and has organized numerous ‘Stop the Steal’ rallies in that effort. Trump will NEVER condemn people that support his demented claim that the election was stolen. It doesn’t matter how antisemitic they are. Fuentes is an active supporter with a big following. He will never condemn anyone like that.

Why did Trump invite West in the first place?  West is a well publicized unapologetic antisemite. And Trump wanted to meet with him?!  Why did he not condemn West and refuse to ever meet with someone who expresses so much hatred for the Jewish people? Same answer. West is a long time Trump supporter with an exponentially greater following than even Fuentes.  

On the one hand I am happy to see so many former Trump supporters abandon him like rats on a sinking ship. He has been criticized by people that not all that long ago fawned all over him - in some cases even by those who had refused to disavow his claim that the election was stolen. They defended the indefensible for political gain – believing in his outsize influence on Republican voters. And the fact that he might just win back the presidency in 2024.

But what Trump did here went too far. You simply do not sit down with a white supremacist Jew hater; explain that you didn’t know; and leave it at that.

His critics now include his own VP, Mike Pence, his favored Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. His close confidant, former US Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, Trump appointed antisemitism envoy, Elan Carr, arch conservative commentator, Ben Shapiro, and numerous other former strong supporters. One of Trump’s biggest supporters during his presidency, Liz Chaney, had the courage to  drop her support right immediately after January 6^th2021. She recognized Trump’s part in the insurrection on that day and the danger he posed to this country. She paid a heavy price for that courage.

The damage done by Trump’s association at any level with avowed anitesmites is incalculable. Trump has made antisemtism acceptable. Allowing anyone who harbors antisemitic ideas  to freely express them as a legitimate point of view. Ideas about Jewish conspiracies to control the world. Having achieved much of that goal already by virtue controlling the banks, the media, and Hollywood. 

Even a popular comedian like Dave Chappelle in a live performance on SNL a few weeks ago expressed views that surely reinforces tropes like that. He suggested that the fact that there are so many Jews (a lot!) in Hollywood means that saying the Jews control it is not all that crazy a thing to believe. Even though I doubt that Chappelle believes that himself, that he suggested it isn’t so far fetched to draw that conclusion gives that trope unprecedented legitimacy among people that tend to believe in conspiracy theories. Like many MAGA Republicans

The sad irony of all of this is how positive Trump’s presidency was for Israel. Despite how detractors might characterize it in negative or negligible terms - surveys have shown that the majority of the Israeli people see him as the greatest friend Israel ever had in the White House. But as good as he was, his true character has been revealed now more than ever. I don’t believe he has the remotest chance of winning the White House back in 2024. Hopefully he won’t get the chance and will not be nominated 

The entirety of the Orthodox Jewish world ought to unite in rejecting this man once and for all. We should thank him for what he has done for Israel and send him on his way. Back to Mar-a-Lago to live out his years in quite solitude. The media ought to finally just ignore him. Because all of their negative coverage just stirs up a frenzy of blind support by his base. 

Let him fade into the setting sun. Let us find new and better leadership that will usher in a new era in support of our ideals and values.  A leadership will not meet with racists and antisemites.  A leadership that will instead unequivocally and strongly condemn antisemitism any and every time it rears its ugly head. A leadership that will no longer damage our democracy the way the last occupant of the White House did..