Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (L) speaks alongside Andrei Kozlov (R), an Israeli hostage who was captured by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and freed by the Israel Defense Forces, at the Israeli-American Council (IAC) National Summit in Washington, DC, on September 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday (September 20, 2024) that Jewish-American voters would be partly to blame if he loses the November 5 election to Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate.
During comments to the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington, the former president lamented that he was trailing Ms. Harris among American Jews.
Israel would likely cease to exist within two years should Ms. Harris win the election, and Jews would be partly to blame for that outcome because they tend to vote for Democrats, Mr. Trump argued.
“If I don’t win this election – and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens because if 40%, I mean, 60% of the people are voting for the enemy – Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years,” Mr. Trump told the crowd.
Mr. Trump was citing a poll that he said showed Ms. Harris polling at 60% among American Jews. He also lamented winning less than 30% of the vote among American Jews in the 2016 election, which he won, and the 2020 election, which he lost to Democratic President Joe Biden.
It was not clear what poll the former president was citing, but a recent Pew Research Survey found American Jews favour Ms. Harris over Mr. Trump, 65% to 34%.
Mr. Trump made similar comments at a separate summit earlier in the evening, also in Washington, which was dedicated to fighting antisemitism in America.
The Trump campaign has made winning over Jewish voters in key battleground states a priority. U.S. Jews have leaned heavily towards Democrats in federal elections for decades and continue to do so, but just a small shift in the Jewish vote could determine the winner in November.
In the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania, for example, there are over 400,000 Jewish people, in a state Biden won by 81,000 votes in 2020.
Published – September 20, 2024 11:40 am IST
