US President Donald Trump accused members of Congress of harbouring antisemitic views during a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the White House on Tuesday, claiming that support for Israel on Capitol Hill has declined in recent years.
Speaking at the event, Trump said Congress was “becoming antisemitic”, adding: “If you go back 10, 12, 15 years ago at the most, the strongest lobby in Washington was the Jewish Lobby, it was Israel. That’s no longer true.”
He said: “As president of the United States, I will always support Jewish Americans and I will always be a friend and a champion of the Jewish people.” Trump went on to single out specific lawmakers, stating: “Congress in particular […] is becoming antisemitic. You have AOC-plus-three. You have those people, Ilhan Omar, she hates Jewish people. There’s been a big change.”
Trump further claimed that there are “antisemites” in Congress and lawmakers who oppose Israel, saying: “You have a lot of people in Congress that don’t like Israel. They hate Israel. It’s getting progressively worse. Bad things are happening and you see what goes on in Australia or October 7, and you have people that deny it ever happened.”