Jewish Mega-Donor Seth Klarman Compares Trump to Hitler
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 30, 2017
Seth Klarman Image by Getty Images
Jewish billionaire hedge fund magnate Seth Klarman compared President Donald Trump to Hitler at a private philanthropy conference this month, according to audio obtained by New York Magazine.
“The president is a threat to democracy,” said Klarman. “People don’t focus on this but Nazi Germany had a constitution before Hitler came to power and at the end of the war they had the exact same constitution. It lasted all the way through, but democracy didn’t.”
Klarman, a major funder of groups like The Israel Project and The Times of Israel, is among the largest donors in the country to Republican politicians, but has been a longtime critic of Trump, and recently gave $30,000 to help Democrats retake the House of Representatives.
Klarman also hold nearly $1 billion in Puerto Rican debt through his fund the Baupost Group, a fact he had sought to mask.
Barry Sternlicht, a Trump friend, also criticized the president at the private meeting, according to New York. “He’s amusing as my friend, but he’s not very amusing as president of the United States,” Sternlicht said.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
