Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Filmmaker Pardoned By Trump Retweets Post With Hashtag #burnthejews

(JTA) — A conservative filmmaker pardoned by President Trump retweeted a Twitter post with the hashtag #burnthejews.

Dinesh D’Souza, who currently is promoting a new film which compares Trump to Abraham Lincoln, on Saturday retweeted a post that praised his movie and included a link to the trailer, which ended with the hashtag #burnthejews.

While the post has been removed, at least one Twitter user took a screenshot of the tweet and circulated it.

D’Souza later tweeted: “I did not see the hashtag. Just trying to share the trailer on social media.” D’Souza later retweeted a second tweet that included a link to his movie, this one with the hashtag #bringbackslavery.

Twitter users made fun of D’Souza’s semi-apology. One wrote: “Don’t worry, Dinesh. Everyone accidentally tweets #burnthejews from their abhorrently racist fans. Could happen to anyone. I’m sure it says nothing about who you attract with your messaging.”

Trump pardoned D’Souza, who served as an advisor in the Reagan administration, in May for a 2014 conviction of a campaign violation, after he admitted to illegally reimbursing two “straw donors” for $10,000 each to a New York Senate campaign in 2012. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, eight months in a halfway house and a $30,000 fine.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.