Trump said Jared Kushner was 'more loyal to Israel than the US,' employing the dual loyalty trope against his Jewish son-in-law: book
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- Trump in a White House meeting suggested Kushner was "more loyal to Israel," per a new book.
- Kushner spearheaded the Trump administration's efforts on the Middle East peace process.
- Trump has employed the anti-Semitic dual loyalty trope on a number of occasions.
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Former President Donald Trump targeted his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with off-color remarks suggesting he was more loyal to Israel than his home country - evoking an anti-Semitic trope in the process - during a White House meeting, according to Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, "Peril."
"'You know,' Trump joked in another meeting, mocking his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was raised in a modern Orthodox Jewish family and was working on Middle East peace, 'Jared's more loyal to Israel than the United States,'" Woodward and Costa wrote.
This was not the first time Trump has played into the dual loyalty trope or the anti-Semitic notion that Jewish Americans are more loyal to Israel than the US. "The charge of disloyalty has been used to harass, marginalize, and persecute the Jewish people for centuries," per the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Trump in April 2019 told an audience of Jewish Americans that Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu is "your prime minister.
In August 2019, Trump said Jewish Americans who vote Democrat display either "a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
Trump also faced criticism in September 2020 after he referred to Israel as "your country" in a conference call with Jewish American leaders. And that same month, The Washington Post reported that Trump after a phone call with Jewish lawmakers said Jews "stick together" and "are only in it for themselves."
The former president and his Republican allies have frequently accused Democrats who are critical of the Israeli government of anti-Semitism. In December 2019, Trump signed an executive order against anti-Semitism at colleges, which opponents said stifled free speech. Critics said the order was designed to target movements critical of the Israeli government's policy toward Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Trump supporters have frequently exhibited anti-Semitic sentiments. Among the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6 was a man wearing a "Camp Auschwitz" t-shirt. An array of neo-Nazis and white supremacists participated in the deadly insurrection, which Trump provoked with lies about the 2020 election.