Former President Donald Trump continued his long-running tradition of anti-Semitic statements in a recent interview, saying that Jews have historically controlled Congress.
Trump made the comments while lamenting that, in the present day, “the Evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country.”
“It used to be that Israel had absolute power over Congress, and today I think it’s the exact opposite, and I think Obama and Biden did that,” Trump said.
He noted that Barack Obama and Joe Biden get “a lot” of votes from American Jews — which Trump said told him “the Jewish people in the United States either don’t like Israel, or don’t care about Israel.”
The comments came in an interview with the journalist Barak Ravid and were aired on the Unholy podcast.
The remarks line up with classic anti-Semitic tropes about Jews manipulating American politics, and American Jews having dual loyalties to both the United States and Israel.
Trump, of course, kept going. He referred to “the Jewish people who run the New York Times” — referring to the Sulzberger family — and said the Times “hates Israel.”
Trump has made similar statements about Jews numerous times over the past few years. Just a few weeks ago, he said Israel “literally owned Congress” until recently. While speaking to American Jews, he’s often referred to Israel as “your country.”
In 2015, he told the Republican Jewish Coalition, “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money.”
“You don’t want to give me money, okay? But that’s okay, you want to control your own politician,” he added later.
