Looking for Donald Trump's concern about violent anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitic acts have been on the increase ever since Nazism and white supremacism rebranded themselves the “alt-right” and quickly became the ugly heart of the Republican Party. With Donald Trump acting as the movement’s living, snarling id, giving voice to statements that a few years ago even an open racist would have been afraid to make in public, it’s not surprising things keep getting worse.

The gravesites of more than 170 Jews were vandalized at a cemetery in University City, Mo., sometime over the weekend. And on Monday, the Anti-Defamation League reported a wave of bomb threats directed against Jewish Community Centers in multiple states, the fourth series of such threats since the beginning of the year, it said, a development that elicited comments from a White House spokesman and Ivanka Trump, neither of which used the phrase “anti-Semitism” or mentioned Jews. There were no words at all from President Trump himself as of early morning Tuesday.

It’s not true that Trump hasn’t talked about anti-Semitism. Donald Trump made a lengthy statement on anti-Semitism just last week. That statement was sit down and shut up.

When President Trump called on him at a news conference on Thursday, saying he was looking for a “friendly reporter,” Mr. Turx was prepared. He had spent an hour crafting a question about a recent surge of anti-Semitism, with a preamble that he hoped would convey his supportive disposition toward Mr. Trump. ... “Sit down,” the president commanded. “I understand the rest of your question.”

Trump’s response to questions of anti-Semitism are the same as his response to everything else: I won. I’m the best. Next question. And it’s easy to understand Trump’s silence—he doesn’t want to upset his voters.