Eric Trump, the second son of former President Donald Trump, is set to speak this weekend at a hotel owned by the former president. Earlier this week, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow noted that Trump was going to speak at this event on the ReAwaken America Tour alongside Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, both of whom have been accused of spreading antisemitism.
Trump, in turn, tweeted:
.@maddow is walking a fine line. We are the most pro-Israel family in American political history — from the Abraham Accords, moving the embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights to sanctioning Iran, no one has done more for Israel than our family. Never mind, that my sister, brother-in-law and niece and nephews happen to be proud Jews. If she or anyone else even remotely suggests I am anti-semitic I will not hesitate to take legal action against them personally.
McKay and Ward were dropped from this weekend’s lineup, though reportedly not from the overall tour. This is a minor victory in a much bigger battle, as extremists continue to push to include antisemitism and white nationalism on mainstream GOP platforms. The consequences of this push are everywhere, from Jan. 6 to last year’s mass shooting in Buffalo.
What neither Trump seems to understand is that the vast majority of American Jews do not consider Israel their top priority when going to the polls.
Some mistakes in Trump’s 80 or so words are beyond the scope of this piece. It’s well established, for example, that antisemites can have Jewish family members or friends. Though Henry Ford published the Dearborn Independent, which regularly included antisemitic vitriol and conspiracy theories, he nevertheless considered himself a friend of his neighbor, Rabbi Leo Franklin.
But the crux of Eric Trump’s argument seems to be that nobody in his family could be antisemitic because of how supportive they are for Israel.
There are two issues with this. The first is that it conflates the…
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