A breathless Donald Trump — apparently pausing after chasing Haitian dog and cat eaters down one blind alley after another — has now focused on the real threat to his presidential reelection chances: the Jews.
And just in time with the High Holidays right around the corner.
Just wait until you see all those extra police patrols huddled around Northwest Baltimore synagogues during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Thanks, Mr. Self-Described “Best Friend of the Jews.”
Trump says if he loses, he’ll blame all 2 percent of the overall U.S. electorate that Jews represent.
And you thought he was blaming Taylor Swift for his troubles.
In a speech last Thursday, ironically billed as “Fighting Antisemitism in America,” the former president said Jews would bear much of the responsibility if he loses his bid to recapture the White House and stay out of the jailhouse.
“The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a loss,” Trump told a mostly Jewish gathering in Washington organized with Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson. “You can’t let this happen.”
Later that evening, in a speech to the Israeli American Council, Trump revisited some of his past Doomsday language that Israel will not survive if he doesn’t get elected in November. He imagines Iran launching nuclear weapons. He invoked the Holocaust.
All this if the Jewish 2 percent of the electorate doesn’t flex its muscles and overwhelm the other 98 percent to get Trump elected.
For the moment, such baloney got him off the scent of dogs and cats running in fear from Haitian immigrants.
“In Springfield [Ohio], they are eating the dogs,” Trump claimed in his televised debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. “The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They are eating the pets of the people that live there.”
That claim has been branded a lie by the governor of Ohio and mayor of Springfield, both of whom are Republicans.
So how do Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, respond to this? They give us variations on a theme.
Over the weekend, Trump told a crowd in Wilmington, North Carolina, “Immigrants are taking your jobs.” At the same time, Vance was telling an audience in Leesport, Pennsylvania, that immigrants were taking their homes.
Why pick on the Jews? Why pick on the Haitians? Same reason Trump has made his malignant feelings known about Blacks, Muslims and other people of color. They are The Other. They’re not like us Real Americans, Trump and Vance are saying.
We may not think we know enough yet to fall in love with Kamala Harris, but we sure as hell know what we don’t love: The Other, whoever They may be.
And in a time when American demographics are changing rapidly, and the traditional white majority feels anxious, as long as Trump keeps emphasizing our differences instead of the things that bind us, he holds onto his frightened base.
A former Baltimore Sun columnist and WJZ-TV commentator, Michael Olesker is the author of six books, including “Journeys to the Heart of Baltimore” and “Michael Olesker’s Baltimore: If You Live Here, You’re Home.”
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