Former President Donald Trump said he “could easily be” the prime minister of Israel and Jewish Americans should “get their act together” and be more appreciative of what they have in Israel.
“No President has done more for Israel than I have,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
“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.,” Trump wrote.
“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!” he went on.
Trump was arguably the most pro-Israel American president to date, with policy changes including recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, transferring the U.S. embassy there, recognizing Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, cutting U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority over its pay-for-slay scheme, nixing the Iran nuclear deal and brokering the Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab Muslim states.
A poll by the Israel Democracy Institute in November 2020 found 70 percent of Jewish Israelis said a victory for Trump would be better for Israel than a Biden win.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, slammed Trump’s remarks on Sunday, calling them “insulting and disgusting.”
File/Israeli supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump hammer a sign into the ground during a rally in the northern Israeli city of Karmiel near Haifa on November 3, 2020, to express their support for him during the U.S. presidential election. (JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty)
“We don’t need the former president, who curries favor with extremists and antisemites, to lecture us about the US-Israel relationship. It is not about a quid-pro-quo; it rests on shared values and security interests. This ‘Jewsplaining’ is insulting and disgusting,” he said.
The American Jewish Committee also condemned his words: “Support for the Jewish state never gives one license to lecture American Jews, nor does it ever give the right to draw baseless judgments about the ties between U.S. Jews and Israel,” it tweeted. “And to be clear, those ties are strong and enduring.
Trump’s comments came days after the Zionist Organization of America decided to bestow him with the Theodor Herzl Medallion, a prestigious honor granted to only a handful of people in the past, including Harry Truman for recognizing Israel, Winston Churchill, and Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion.
Trump in the past charged American Jews of “no longer lov[ing] Israel.”
“I’ll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than Jews in this country,” he said in an interview in December.
Trump said the fact 75% of Jewish voters were planning to support Joe Biden in 2020 was evidence that they either “don’t like Israel or don’t care about Israel.”
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