Image by YouTube

When it comes to anti-Semitic dog whistles, some Donald Trump supporters are outdoing the campaign. At a Monday rally in Sarasota, Florida, a young man at the candidate’s rally told a reporter with The Young Turks that he thought the Republican nominee would “end Zionism.”

“I like Donald Trump as president, and that’s what we need to make this country great again, to end a lot of things including… Zionism, which is huge, and it’s probably the biggest problem that we have in this country today,” the unidentified person said to Eric Byler, a staffer with the liberal news site.

Antisemitism Notebook

Your weekly guide through the news and the noise of how rising antisemitism and disputes over how to address it are shaping American Jewish life.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

Asked to define Zionism, the Trump backer did not reference the Jewish nationalist movement, but rather a nefarious to dominate the globe.

“Zionism is basically an ideology in which a few people at the top from a specific religious group control the masses, and most people have no idea. They’ve never heard the term, but it’s probably the biggest problem we have in the world today,” he said.

At the end of the interview, he advised people “to follow Alex Jones at InfoWars.com. The truth is with David Duke and Alex Jones.”

Jones is a conspiratorial far-right radio host, who has alleged that the Sandy Hook massacre was staged and that Michelle Obama is secretly a man who murdered comedian Joan Rivers. Duke is a notorious white supremacist and anti-Semite.

Filled with attacks on elite power, the Republican nominee’s closing ad drew on anti-Semitic tropes, featuring pictures of billionaire George Soros, Fed chairman Janet Yellen and Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein.

Criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, numerous rabbis and many pundits, the commercial implied that all three are part of “a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth and put that money into the [ pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.”

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

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

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount