Rapper Kanye West speaks during his meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on October 11, 2018.(Saul Loeb / AFP for Getty Images)
In the past week, a number of prominent MAGA leaders have made comments about Jews that range from insulting to outright anti-Semitic.
Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S. Those living in Israel, though are a different story—Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.! U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel—Before it is too late!”
Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted: “The same banks that hold George Soros accounts and hedge funds also held Jeffrey Epstein accounts and hedge funds.”
In a tweet that was deleted by Twitter, the musician Kanye West wrote, “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
What are we to make of these comments? To take up the issue, I talked to David Klion, an editor at Jewish Currents who has written before on Trump’s comments on Jews. (David speaks on this podcast for himself and not for Jewish Currents). It’s a wide-ranging discussion about how casual bigotry serves as a gateway to something much worse.
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Jeet HeerTwitterJeet Heer is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation and host of the weekly Nation podcast, The Time of Monsters. He also pens the monthly column “Morbid Symptoms.” The author of In Love with Art: Francoise Mouly’s Adventures in Comics with Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: Reviews, Essays and Profiles (2014), Heer has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The American Prospect, The Guardian, The New Republic, and The Boston Globe.