If anybody was wondering whether Donald Trump is prepared to let bygones be bygones when it comes to his outrageously inflammatory, racially-charged dispute with Muslim congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the answer is “definitely not”.
Last week, the president managed to compel Benjamin Netanyahu to ban Omar and Tlaib from entering Israel on a planned trip. The announcement came just weeks after Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer disappointed the White House by saying Israel would not use Israel’s anti-BDS law to prevent the two women from coming to the country “out of respect for the US Congress and the great alliance between Israel and America”.
Shortly before Netanyahu’s U-turn, Trump took to Twitter and declared Israel would be showing “weakness” if they allowed Omar and Tlaib in. “They hate Israel & all Jewish people”, Trump lied. (The controversy stems from the two women’s antagonistic stance towards the Israeli state’s human rights record, not to a deep-seated hatred of Jewish people.)
The highly unfortunate episode was the latest in Trump’s war of words with Omar and Tlaib, who he habitually slanders along with their “Squad sisters” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley, who blasted the president and Netanyahu in the wake of the controversy.
Fast forward less than a week, and Trump told reporters at the White House that any Jewish people who vote Democrat are either disloyal or stupid. Literally. Here is the clip, which is so abrasive as to be wholly laughable.
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“I think Jewish people that vote for a Democrat–I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty”, Trump said, donning a particularly offensive shade of orange face paint and sporting a blindingly yellow combover that was virtually indistinguishable from the chair he was sitting in.
Here’s Vanity Fair’s Bess Levin:
Oh yeah! Nothing like a good anti-Semitic trope about “dual loyalty” to reel in that Jewish vote! It’s a bit like when the former real-estate developer nabbed 8% of the black vote in 2016 by calling African Americans poor, uneducated, and unemployed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Nothing further.
I don’t mean to distract from H.’s alawys excellent market commentary, but is Trump not the biggest asshole to commandeer the American political scene in at least fifty years. And can you name one person — one person — who DIDN”T vote for the guy in 2016 who plans to vote for him in 2020?
If he hands out $50 bills like at the rallies, there are plenty of people who will find a way to vote for him.
But they all voted for him in 2016. I have yet to me one person who didn’t vote for Trump in 2016 who is cchamping at the bit to vote for him in 2020.
Trump is conflicted. The ‘stable genius’ espouses his support for Bibby & Israel, while playing up to White Racist nationalists who marched in Charlottesville chanting en mass, “Jews will not replace us!” But, but, but…”There are good people_on both sides.”???
Mitch, every day it just gets worse. Do you hate the Republican Party so much that you’re going to lead it to annihilation? I know you don’t give a damn about the majority of voters who aren’t rich or Trump’s Storm Troopers. Or you’ve been compromised? Which is it?