Republican Jewish Group Endorses Donald Trump, Exacerbating Feud
The main Republican Jewish group has endorsed Donald Trump for president, driving a fresh wedge between politically conservative Jews whose conflict over the presumptive nominee played out online on Wednesday, the day after Trump won the Indiana Republican primary.
The Republican Jewish Coalition posted on Twitter a message from its national chairman, David Flaum, congratulating Trump on his presumptive nomination, and saying there was “unity” among Republicans in the belief that Hillary Clinton “the worst possible choice for a commander in chief.”
Today the Republican Jewish Coalition released the following statement after Donald Trump’s win in Indiana. pic.twitter.com/QwVFNvj4hp
— RJC (@RJC) May 4, 2016
But unity was hard to find as Republican Jews turned on each other, with some recoiling in horror at the idea of supporting a candidate they see as unprincipled, while others insisted that while Trump has his failings, he’s still a better choice than Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee.
In response to an earlier endorsement of Trump by Ari Fleischer, who serves on the organization’s board, conservative Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin wrote on Twitter that the organization would be “dead to me” if they followed Fleischer’s lead.
@AriFleischer No, No, NO. And if RJC backs him they are dead to me.
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) May 4, 2016
Noam Neusner, a former speechwriter for the White House and Mitt Romney, said Trump does not represent the values of the Republican party.
. @NoamNeusner says #DonaldTrump does not align with the #RepublicanParty’s traditions or America’s core values: pic.twitter.com/hXco7EGVZL
— abc730 (@abc730) May 4, 2016
A vote for Trump was “completely wrong,” tweeted Allen Ginzburg, who has written for conservative publication “Red Alert Politics” and is an avid user of the #NeverTrump hashtag.
@AriFleischer And you will be completely wrong to do so.
— AG (@AG_Conservative) May 4, 2016
Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary under George W. Bush, exposed an emerging fault line that could split both the Republican party and Jewish conservatives, when he expressed his support for Trump on Tuesday evening.
There’s a lot about Donald Trump that I don’t like, but I’ll vote for Trump over Hillary any day.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) May 4, 2016
Liberal Jews also condemned Fleischer’s Tweet. Peter Beinart, a political commentator and journalist who is an outspoken opponent of Israeli settlements, said Fleischer’s tweet was not unexpected.
@AriFleischer about what i would have expected
— Peter Beinart (@PeterBeinart) May 4, 2016
Prominent journalist Julia Ioffe, who was the victim last week of anti-Semitic attacks by Trump supporters after writing a profile about the Republican candidates’s wife, pointed out that Fleischer had only hours earlier posted a link to an article that criticized the real estate mogul for lying about his support of the Iraq War.
These were tweeted by the same human, consecutively. pic.twitter.com/yPYB869IdC
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) May 4, 2016
To be sure, Fleischer’s tweet did not only receive negative reaction. It had been retweeted over 1,800 times and received over 3,600 likes by Wednesday late afternoon.
Trump was criticized for drawing on anti-Semitic stereotypes when he referred to Jews as deal “negotiators” and said they would not support him “because I don’t want your money” during a December meeting with the Republican Jewish Coalition. He was also booed by the crowd when refusing to declare Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30