What did Donald Trump do today?

He dodged a lot of stories about antisemitism in his administration and his biggest fans.

Today, Trump lost a round in one of many ongoing court battles related to his attempts to deport academics with valid visas for supposed "antisemitism." Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen legally in the country to work as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was ordered released from detention today. He took part in a protest last year against the treatment of Palestinians by Israel—before Trump even took office—and is married to a Palestinian-American citizen.

Trump has characterized any protest against the government of Israel as being "pro-Hamas" and "antisemitic," and has not hesitated to label anyone he regards as an enemy that way, including Jews. He has also argued that this is in and of itself grounds for deportation—or, in other words, that the government is entitled to punish law-abiding immigrants for political speech its president doesn't like. But as a matter of centuries-old law, the First Amendment protects all people, not just citizens. This was the basis for the order freeing Khan Suri.

This wasn't the only time today the question of antisemitism came up. NPR released a report today on three high-ranking Trump administration officials with ties to violent actual antisemitic extremists. (As the report noted, this is in addition to officials whose close ties to anti-Jewish extremists was already known, like FBI Director Kash Patel.)

Neither Trump nor his administration responded to NPR's requests for comment.

A second story about actual anti-Jewish sentiment broke today as more details are emerging about the 59 white South African "refugees" that Trump recently brought to the United States. Charl Kleinhaus, a white farmer who now lives in Buffalo, tweeted this in 2023:

 

By Trump's standards as applied to any other group living legally in the United States, this would be grounds for immediate detention and deportation. Kleinhaus' social media accounts make clear he's a fan of antisemitic podcaster Stew Peters—whose show FBI Director Patel appeared on eight times, even though he said he couldn't remember who Peters was during his confirmation hearing.

Neither Trump nor the White House has commented on Kleinhaus, either.

By his own admission, Trump believes any number of anti-Jewish stereotypes. He called American Jews who oppose the Netanyahu government in Israel "disloyal." (The idea that Jews are only loyal to themselves or Israel rather than the countries in which they live was one of the animating ideas behind the Holocaust; Trump's only twist on it is that he thinks it should be true.) 

Trump has said that Jews who didn't vote for him "hate their religion." He's perpetuated antisemitic stereotypes about Jews and money. He told a Jewish audience at the Israeli American Council that they were "brutal killers, not nice people at all" in business because of their supposed lust for money, and taunted them by saying it would force them to vote for him even though they hated him.

Trump weaponizing claims of antisemitism are a recent development, though. More typically, he's viewed anti-Jewish extremists as his base and defended them as "very fine people."

Why does this matter?

• Antisemitism is a genuine threat to Jews all over the world and needs to be treated like a problem, not a political opportunity.
  

• It's bad if the President of the United States believes disgusting racist stereotypes about Jews.
  

• It's worse if he goes out of his way to surround himself with staff who feel the same way.
  

• The Constitution, not Donald Trump's feelings, is the supreme law of the United States.