Trump finally confronts anti-Semitism head-on 'The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful,' the president says.

For the first time in a week, President Donald Trump on Tuesday unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism, following in his daughter’s footsteps after twice last week refusing to explicitly denounce discrimination against Jews.

“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” the president said, reading brief remarks after concluding a tour of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.


“This tour was a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms,” he said.

Trump spent roughly an hour walking through the museum with his daughter Ivanka Trump; Housing and Urban Development secretary nominee Ben Carson and his wife, Candy; Fox News contributor Alveda King, niece of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.).

The president told reporters he plans to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “I will be doing it soon,” he said, when asked about a potential trip. “Very important. Very important for me.”

Trump’s attempt Tuesday to calm the waters came after the president and his White House alarmed many in the Jewish community and anti-discrimination groups. His long-awaited remarks came weeks after he omitted a reference to the slaughter of 6 million Jews from a Holocaust remembrance statement and days after he declined to directly condemn anti-Semitism when confronted by reporters at news conferences on back-to-back days.

But it didn’t appease some Democrats. “It’s not hard to see a connection between the rhetoric used by the white nationalists given a platform by President Donald Trump’s campaign and the increase in threats against the Jewish people,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “President Trump’s statement is long overdue and doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what needs to be done.”

Steven Goldstein, executive director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, based in New York, also said Trump’s efforts were too little and too late. “The President’s sudden acknowledgment of Anti-Semitism is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Anti-Semitism that has infected his own Administration,” Goldstein said in a statement.





Trump throughout the campaign battled allegations of anti-Semitic influences on his operation, including from campaign chairman Steve Bannon, who had run the conservative news outlet Breitbart. He also failed to quickly disavow the endorsement of white supremacist David Duke, and many of his supporters pushed anti-Semitic imagery, including Pepe the Frog, a popular internet meme among white nationalists.

Trump’s condemnation on Tuesday came hours after former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton called on him to speak out against anti-Semitic violence.

“JCC threats, cemetery desecration & online attacks are so troubling & they need to be stopped. Everyone must speak out, starting w/ @POTUS,” Clinton tweeted Tuesday morning.

Her post followed a call from the Anti-Defamation League for the Trump administration to take action in response to a wave of reported threats against Jewish community centers (often referred to as JCCs) around the country. At least 10 such centers have received bomb threats in recent days, the fourth wave of threats against JCCs the ADL has identified this year.

On Monday night, Ivanka Trump, who converted to Orthodox Judaism ahead of her 2009 wedding, tweeted: “America is a nation built on the principle of religious tolerance. We must protect our houses of worship & religious centers. #JCC”

Ahead of his brief address, the president had told MSNBC’s Craig Melvin that “anti-Semitism is horrible and it’s gonna stop and it has to stop.” He added that the racial divide in America is “age-old” and speculated that “something” is going on that prevents the country from fully healing.

“Sometimes it gets better and then it busts apart. But we wanna have it get very much better, get unified and stay together,” Trump said. “But you’ve seen it where oftentimes it’ll get much better and then it blows up.”

He credited the new African-American history museum for helping bridge that divide, though.

“Part of the beauty of what you’re doing here with the museum and the success of the museum — the success is very important because it’s doing tremendous numbers. Tremendous numbers of people coming in,” he said. “I think that really helps to get that divide and bring it much closer together. If not, perfect.”

Trump was joined in his denouncement of anti-Semitism by House Speaker Paul Ryan. “Anti-Semitism in any form is abhorrent, and I encourage authorities nationwide to take these threats seriously,” he tweeted on Tuesday.

Trump’s rhetoric Tuesday was a stark contrast to his passive language last week. Trump failed to take advantage of his first opportunity last Wednesday, when a reporter asked about the rise of anti-Semitic incidents across the country.

Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump immediately discussed his Electoral College victory before pledging his administration will do all it can to “stop long-simmering racism and every other thing that’s going on.” He also hinted that he personally can’t be anti-Semitic, pointing to his Jewish family members: Ivanka; her husband, senior White House adviser Jared Kushner; and their three children.

At a news conference Thursday, Trump again caused agitation. In search of a “friendly reporter,” the president called on Jake Turx of the weekly Orthodox Jewish publication Ami Magazine, who prefaced his question by noting that he did not believe Trump to be an anti-Semite before launching into a query about bomb threats against JCCs.

Complaining that he wasn’t asked a “simple” or “fair question,” Trump ordered the reporter to “sit down” and insisted he understood the remainder of the incomplete question. The president then declared himself to be “the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life” and added that he’s also “the least racist person.”

He also recalled Netanyahu’s defense of him at the prior day’s news conference, where the prime minister argued that “there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than” Trump.

In neither instance, however, did Trump condemn anti-Semitic acts of violence, instead opting to defend himself against possible charges of being an anti-Semite or racist.

On Tuesday, asked explicitly by MSNBC’s Melvin whether he would denounce anti-Semitism “once and for all,” Trump said yes — and claimed he’s been doing it all along.

“Oh, of course,” he said. “And I do it — wherever I get a chance, I do it.”

