(CNN) Seemingly devoted to making our country into the Divided States of America, the President who smeared and offended Muslims and Latinos is now doing the same for Jews. Speaking in the Oval Office, Donald Trump accused Jews who vote for Democrats of having "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."

Michael D'Antonio

With those nine evil words, he deployed a vague but potent trope about Jewish patriotism. Accusations of "disloyalty" were flung at Jews in Nazi Germany and have been used to smear Jews around the world. Trump wasn't specific about the loyalty Jewish Democrats were violating. To Israel? To Judaism? To America? To Trump? He subsequently explained to reporters Wednesday that he had meant that those who support Democrats are disloyal to "Jewish people" and to Israel. He did not explain why he should be considered a proper judge of Jewish Americans' obligations.

The uproar over Trump's remarks drew press attention away from rising evidence that the US is headed for an economic meltdown. The economy has been his main claim to presidential success. On the very day he shouted-out to anti-Semites, Trump also admitted that more tax cuts are being considered as a way to halt the slide into recession.

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Confusing and outrageous statements are key to Trump's style of attention-seeking, which he refined over decades of manipulating the tabloid press in New York City. Back then he would make outrageous statements about his own wealth, plant stories about the famous women pursuing him for romance, and jump into controversies like the attack on a jogger in Central Park, which he exploited with signed advertisements calling for New York state to reinstate the death penalty.

In the jogger case, Trump wasn't so bold as to say the youngsters arrested for the crime should be executed, but the implication was obvious. (It should be noted that they were eventually exonerated of the crime.) The wording meant that Trump could exploit the dangerous anger people felt about the attack, but in an indirect way.

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