Once upon a time, The Drudge Report was the go-to news aggregator for conservatives, but it fell into disrepute sometime during the Trump Administration, leaving conservatives in the dust as the site’s new caretakers sought “bluer” pastures.
Feeling a bit nostalgic, I decided to e-mosey on over to Drudge and check it out for the first time in years.
And there it was: “Don joked about ‘Nazi ovens’ in meeting with Jews.”
The crux of the article is that former Trump Organization VP Barbara Res, who left the company in 1998, “told MSNBC host Ali Velshi that Trump was bragging to his team about a new hire, who was German. “And he looked at a couple of our executives who happen to be Jewish, and he said, ‘Watch out for this guy, he sort of remembers the ovens,’ you know, and then smiled.”
Like clockwork and in lockstep, the Democrat-Media Complex swooped in and dredged up the old saw that Trump hates Jews and loves Nazis. Disseminating Res’s story allows the left to perpetuate narratives from 2016 and 2020 that Trump is a Nazi sympathizer who salivated when white-hooded KKKers descended on Charlottesville, that MAGA is the 21st-century equivalent to the swastika, and that a vote for Trump is a vote for Hitler.
They had to dig deep into their bag of election hokum and travel back to 1998 to unearth this new story about Trump’s Nazi inclinations, something that was somehow overlooked in the previous two campaigns.
Trump at the Western Wall (AI edited to add clarity). YouTube screen grab.
But it provides just enough of what they need—a small drop of “accelerant” online to explode into a raging inferno that will carve a broad path of destruction (they hope) to Trump’s detriment.
It seems that the “silly season,” where candidates do whatever they can in the last throes of a campaign to garner voters’ attention—no matter how ridiculous or dubious—has become the way the left campaigns. Since Trump alighted on the political scene, there is no lie big enough.
If you are a good faith voter looking for more information on Google about Trump’s so-called Jew-hatred, maybe even an article that refutes it, fuhgeddaboudit. All you will find is the same story recycled as gospel on every Google page in your search. The same words. The same accusations and insinuations. All unsubstantiated and unchallenged. Multiplying like an unchecked COVID infection. What started as recollection qua allegation qua accusation has, with each publication, become indisputable fact.
A solid journalist would dig deeper before publication and uncover the date and location of the alleged meeting and interview those in attendance, particularly the Jewish employees. True journalism would wan either to refute or substantiate the allegations.
But that kind of rugged, hard-hitting journalism no longer exists in America. It’s been gobbled up by hard-hitting political gamesmanship and propaganda. Truth as the goal has been supplanted by pure lust for the win.
But, let’s say for the sake of argument, that Trump did make the “joke” about the ovens. He wouldn’t be the first person to make an off-color joke that went over like a lead balloon. Many have said stupid things, thinking they were being witty or paving a smoother path for what might have been a potentially controversial situation. A bad joke in poor taste does not an anti-Semite make.
So, let’s examine Trump’s actions and words and compare them to those of Biden—and that is where you’ll find your anti-Semite hiding in plain sight.
First, there is Trump himself. There is little dispute that he has been the greatest friend to Israel ever in the Oval Office, reversing the Obama-Biden Iran Nuclear Accord, moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital and the Golan Heights as part of Israel, rejecting Obama-Biden claims that West Bank settlements are illegal, and normalizing relations between Israel, Sudan, Morocco, Bahrain, and the UAE under the Abraham Accords. He is the father and grandfather to a Jewish daughter and grandchildren. Given his extensive business dealings, he’s undoubtedly had considerable interactions with Jewish individuals.
As a former President currently running for office, he has been outspoken about the violence and anti-Semitism taking place at our universities and on our streets. He has not missed a beat supporting Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas/Hezbollah/IRAN. Moreover, Trump has consistently criticized the Biden Admin as well as the ICC and UN for targeting an ally, the only tolerant democracy in the Middle East, and a member-state of the UN that, by all rights under the UN Charter and longstanding norms of international law, has an unequivocal right to defend itself when brutally attacked.
Then, there is Biden. A quisling of the highest order working for the enemies of freedom and tolerance, Biden has served up nothing but lip service and blatant lies in claiming to support Israel, when, in fact, he has been withholding vital arms shipments previously approved by the US Congress. So much for Biden’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel.
Biden is a feckless interlocutor talking out of both sides of his mouth when he declares that Israel has a right to defend itself and completely eliminate Hamas, then immediately undermines those claims by demanding ceasefires that interfere with Israel’s ability to prosecute the war while benefiting Hamas with more time to reset its efforts; spreads lies about what was or wasn’t agreed to in negotiations that never happened; and demands Israel make efforts to limit civilian casualties and offer more humanitarian relief when Israel already goes above and beyond any other nation on the planet when it comes to protecting the citizens of its enemies whose leaders knowingly put their lives in danger.
Most recently, Biden has been an absentee President who has all but ignored the violence and anti-Semitism in full bloom on college campuses and our streets.
Who is the anti-Semite? Denying Israel the legal and military means to protect itself is akin to denying Israel’s right to exist. It is anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic.
Paraphrasing Douglas Murray, the world used to hate Jews because of their religion. When that fell out of fashion, the world discriminated against the Jews based on race. When race fell out of favor as a means to hate, the world turned to nationhood. Now, it is perfectly acceptable to hate Jews for having a nation and defending it. Hating Zionism, Israel’s right to exist and the concomitant right to protect its sovereignty and people at all costs, is the religious and racial hatred of the past with just another name.
Let’s say there was, indeed, a time when Trump was anti-Semitic or held views about Jews that were simply tired old tropes, or that he was just plain ignorant and insensitive to Jewish sensibilities.
Were that the case, there’s no doubt that Trump has grown beyond those views. As a Jewish person and an American, I prefer someone who sees the light and changes his views or ways to one who is merely labeled ignorant, intolerant, or anti-Semitic and remains that way.
This reminds me of a story told by former Oklahoma congressman, Sooners football great, and Baptist minister J.C. Watts in his What Color is a Conservative?. One night on the radio show his father hosted, an avowed KKKer called in, spewing his hateful rhetoric. Instead of castigating and hanging up on him, Watts’ father engaged the man, who continued to call in and eventually saw the errors of his ways, with the two ultimately forming a friendship.
I’ll take the moronic joke accompanied by righteous actions; I’ll take the reformed anti-Semite who comes to genuinely love and respect his Jewish family and the Jewish people; and I’ll take it all any day over Biden’s prevarications, blatant bigotry, and treachery in undermining the safety of American Jews and the survival of Israel. There’s your anti-Semite.
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