Donald Trump Goes All ‘Frozen’ on Star of David Flap
By Sam Kestenbaum July 7, 2016
You might think Donald Trump would want to put his controversial Tweet using a Star of David in the rear view mirror as fast as possible.
Instead, he is keeping the story alive by pointing to a Disney sticker book with a similar six-sided star as evidence that his Tweeet of an anti-Hillary Clinton meme created by a neo-Nazi site wasn’t really anti-Semitic at all.
“Where is the outrage for this Disney book?” he wrote on Twitter. “Is this the ‘Star of David’ also? Dishonest media!”
Then he added the hashtag: #Frozen.
The latest firestorm surrounding the controversial presidential candidate started when Mic News reported that an image Trump had previously used to attack Hillary Clinton — which included the words: “History made” and, inside a six-point star, “most corrupt candidate ever!” — had been shared on a neo-Nazi web forum called /pol/.
The Tweet was deleted from Trump’s Twitter feed two hours after it was posted, as prominent politicians and media figures denounced the imagery as evoking anti-Semitic tropes. But later, Trump backtracked on this decision, too.
On Wednesday he defended the use of the star in a campaign speech.
“ ‘You shouldn’t have taken it down,’ ”Trump recalled telling a campaign worker. “I said, ‘Too bad, you should have left it up.’ I would have rather defended it.”
“That’s just a star,” he said.
After posting the Frozen image, Hillary quipped on Twitter: “Do you want to build a straw man?”
Trump has repeatedly insisted that he is not anti-Semitic. He regularly points out that his daughter is a Jewish convert and that he has many Jewish supporters.
Yet others say Trump has done little to quell a tide of anti-Semitism among his supporters. He was initially hesitant to disavow Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Many Jewish journalists have also come under fire from Trump supporters online.
The Anti-Defamation League recently called on Trump to denounce the anti-Semitisim that seems to be swirling around the candidate.
“It’s long past time for Trump to unequivocally reject the hate-filled extremists orbiting around his campaign,” Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL said, “and take a stand against anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate.”
Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com or follow him on Twtter at @skestenbaum
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.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
