{"id":387582,"date":"2025-11-18T12:58:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/387582\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T12:58:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T12:58:13","slug":"trump-works-to-avoid-the-antisemitism-debate-roiling-his-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/387582\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump works to avoid the antisemitism debate roiling his party"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When President Donald Trump<\/a> doesn\u2019t like someone, he knows how to show it. In just the last few days, he\u2019s described Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as a traitor, mocked Rep. Thomas Massie\u2019s second marriage after his first wife died and demanded that comedian Seth Meyers get fired from his late-night television show. <\/p>\n

But he had nothing bad to say<\/a> about two people roiling his party<\/a>: white nationalist Nick Fuentes and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. The former Fox News host recently hosted Fuentes for a friendly interview, where he declined to challenge his guest\u2019s bigoted beliefs or a remark about problems with \u201corganized Jewry in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the controversy that has been rippling through Republican circles for weeks, Trump did not criticize Fuentes and praised Carlson for having \u201csaid good things about me over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s answer echoes his longstanding reluctance to disavow \u2014 and sometimes, his willingness to embrace \u2014 right-wing figures who have inched their way from the political fringe to the Republican mainstream.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed in President Trump,\u201d said Morton Klein, president of the conservative Zionist Organization of America, adding that he should \u201crethink and retract\u201d his comments. <\/p>\n

The threat of antisemitism<\/a>, which has percolated across the political spectrum, will likely be a recurring political issue in the coming year, as Democrats and Republicans battle for control of Congress in the midterms. Although Trump has targeted left-wing campus activism<\/a> as a hive of anti-Jewish sentiment, Fuentes\u2019 influence is a test of whether conservatives are willing to accommodate bigots as part of their political coalition.<\/p>\n

A top conservative group faces antisemitism controversy<\/p>\n

The turmoil has already engulfed the Heritage Foundation<\/a>, a leading think tank whose president Kevin Roberts initially refused to distance himself from Carlson. A member of Heritage\u2019s board of trustees, Robert George, announced his resignation Monday, which followed a recent decision by an antisemitism task force to sever its ties with the organization.<\/p>\n

Although Roberts has apologized, George said \u201cwe reached an impasse\u201d because he didn\u2019t fully retract his original support for Carlson. <\/p>\n

\u201cI pray that Heritage\u2019s research and advocacy will be guided by the conviction that each and every member of the human family, irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, or anything else, as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, is \u2018created equal\u2019 and \u2018endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,\u2019\u201d George wrote on Facebook, quoting the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n

Laurie Cardoza-Moore, an evangelical conservative activist and film producer, joined Heritage\u2019s antisemitism task force in June but stepped away when Roberts refused to resign. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we aren\u2019t solid on condemning antisemitism, shame on us,\u201d she said Monday. <\/p>\n

Cardoza-Moore praised Trump\u2019s record on supporting Israel but said he fell short on Sunday while talking about Carlson and Fuentes. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all agree \u2014 and I wish \u2014 that he would have gone further,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what kind of pressure Trump will face despite his previous dalliance with Fuentes, who had dinner<\/a> with the past-and-future president at his Mar-a-Lago club in between his two terms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think President Trump during his first or second term could be acting more strongly to prevent antisemitism,\u201d said Matthew Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He noted Trump\u2019s first-term relocation of the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and, more recently, the president\u2019s handling of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments could prolong a Republican rift<\/p>\n

This is not the first time<\/a> Trump has shied away from criticizing fringe elements on the right. During his first campaign for president, Trump initially declined to disavow support from white nationalist David Duke, saying, \u201cI just don\u2019t know anything about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed there were \u201cvery fine people on both sides\u201d during racist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia<\/a>. While running for reelection, he told the extremist Proud Boys<\/a> to \u201cstand back and stand by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s unwillingness to condemn either Fuentes or Carlson has the potential to prolong a rift within the Republican Party. On Sunday, as he prepared to fly back to Washington from a weekend in Florida, Trump praised Carlson and said \u201cyou can\u2019t tell him who to interview.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he wants to interview Nick Fuentes \u2014 I don\u2019t know much about him \u2014 but if he wants to do it, get the word out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cPeople have to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuentes liked what he heard, posting \u201cThank you Mr. President!\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s remarks run counter to a wave of objections that have flowed from key Republicans. The issue will be the focus of a planned gathering of pro-Israel conservative leaders on Tuesday in Washington called \u201cExposing and Countering Extremism and Antisemitism on the Political Right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event features U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Ralph Reed of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Klein, of the Zionist Organization of America.<\/p>\n

Perkins said the event has been discussed for some time. \u201cBut with recent comments by folks like Tucker, there was an urgency to go ahead and hold the conference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The recent annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition<\/a> in Las Vegas was similarly focused on condemning antisemitism within the party, a shift from the original plans to celebrate the ceasefire in Gaza and the return of Hamas-held hostages. <\/p>\n

Brooks said at the time, \u201cWe are at this point in what I consider sort of the early stages of an undeclared civil war within the Republican Party, as it relates to Israel, and antisemitism and the Jewish community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s really going to be our challenge going forward to combat that before it has a chance to grow and metastasize in the Republican Party,\u201d Brooks said.<\/p>\n

During one part of the conference, college students waved red signs that read, \u201cTucker is not MAGA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump addressed the summit by prerecorded video, using his time to promote his administration\u2019s support for Israel. He did not mention the controversy that had dominated the conference.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 When President Donald Trump doesn\u2019t like someone, he knows how to show it. In just…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":387583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[12648,1226,184852,84,69,57,99,72713,2184,9701,184854,28281,50,121737,80,2068,19500,184851,184853,15466,8118,184850,20965,89,322,67,132,68,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-387582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-conservatism","11":"tag-david-duke","12":"tag-district-of-columbia","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-kevin-roberts","17":"tag-las-vegas","18":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","19":"tag-matthew-brooks","20":"tag-mike-huckabee","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-nick-fuentes","23":"tag-politics","24":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","25":"tag-racism","26":"tag-ralph-reed","27":"tag-robert-george","28":"tag-seth-meyers","29":"tag-thomas-massie","30":"tag-tony-perkins","31":"tag-tucker-carlson","32":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","33":"tag-u-s-republican-party","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-unitedstates","36":"tag-us","37":"tag-washington-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115570822926616283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}