Trump saying Jews are crazy to vote for his nemesis is a throwback to Ed Koch
In 1988, NYC’s mayor stoked Black-Jewish tensions by demonizing Jesse Jackson
From left to right, Donald Trump, Jesse Jackson, Ed Koch. Photo by Getty; montage via Canva
By Beth Harpaz September 4, 2024
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has gotten a lot of attention for saying Jews would be crazy to vote Democratic in the presidential election. First he said it about voting for Joe Biden. Then he said it about voting for Kamala Harris.
But this isn’t the first time Jewish voters have been told they’d be out of their minds to vote for a certain candidate. In 1988, New York City’s Mayor Ed Koch made headlines when he said that Jewish voters supporting the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential bid “have got to be crazy.”
Here’s a look at the history of these political declarations involving Jewish voters, and Koch’s own insult-fest with Trump.
What Trump says about Jewish voters
Before President Joe Biden took himself out of the presidential race, Trump said: “Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat or votes for Biden should have their head examined.”
In August, after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced Biden as the Democrats’ presidential candidate, Trump said: “She’s been very, very bad to Israel and very, very bad to Jewish people. And I say it: If anybody I know is Jewish and they would vote for Kamala over me, they should have their head examined.”
In March, Trump said: “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” adding that Jews who support Democrats “hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”
In July, Trump said: “If you’re Jewish, if you vote for a Democrat, you’re a fool, an absolute fool.” He added that Harris “dislikes Jewish people and Israel even more than Biden did.” Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish.
Trump has also lashed out at Sen. Chuck Schumer, who, as Senate majority leader, is the highest-ranking Jew to ever serve in the U.S. government, saying Schumer’s criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meant Schumer had become “like a Palestinian.” Trump also said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro is a “highly overrated Jewish governor.”
Koch and Jesse Jackson
In contrast to Trump’s fill-in-the-blank attacks on Democrats — in which he accuses both Jewish and non-Jewish Democrats of being anti-Israel, and says Jewish voters who support Democrats are nuts — at least Koch’s criticism of Jackson was based on things Jackson had actually said and done.
Jackson famously referred to New York City as “Hymietown” in 1984, and at one time he had a working relationship with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has called Hitler a “great man.” Koch also criticized Jackson’s support for Palestinian self-determination and a meeting Jackson held with Palestine Liberation Organization head Yasser Arafat.
Koch also questioned Jackson’s story of cradling Martin Luther King Jr. after King was shot and lay dying. “Under stress he will do what’s convenient, and if lying is convenient, that’s what he will do,” Koch had said of Jackson. And Koch predicted that if Jackson were president, the country would be “bankrupt” and ”defenseless.”
Koch was so unrelenting in his attacks on Jackson that others — including Al Gore, who was also running for president in 1988 — apologized for him. Even the president of the American Jewish Congress at the time, Robert Lifton, said: “Mr. Koch does not speak for Jews.”
In the New York presidential primary that year, Jewish voters chose other candidates over Jackson 10:1, so Koch’s attacks may have had their intended effect. But Koch’s statements probably didn’t alter Jackson’s overall chances of becoming the Democratic candidate for president. Michael Dukakis won 42% of the Democratic primary vote nationwide, compared to Jackson’s 29%. (Dukakis then lost to George H.W. Bush in the general election).
But going after Jackson didn’t help Koch’s standing with Black New Yorkers at a time when race relations in the city were already tense. A year later, Koch lost his re-election bid for a fourth term as mayor to David Dinkins, who won more than 90% of Black primary voters and who went on to become the city’s first Black mayor. (Trump actually contributed money to Dinkins’ campaign, though he gave money to Dinkins’ Republican opponent, Rudy Giuliani, as well. Giuliani lost the 1989 race to Dinkins but won in their second faceoff.)
Ultimately, Koch expressed regret for going after Jackson, saying: “My attacks on Jesse Jackson have backfired. The public doesn’t like negative attacks.”
The Koch-Trump feud
If Trump is taking a page from Koch’s political playbook in telling Jewish voters that they’re crazy to vote for Biden, Harris or any other Democrat Trump doesn’t like, he’s certainly not doing it out of any fealty to Koch, who died in 2013.
The two men were famously antagonistic toward one another. At one point, Trump wanted tax breaks for a real estate development plan, and when Koch said no, Trump called the mayor a “moron” and said, “The city under Ed Koch is a disaster.”
Koch’s hollaback — “If Donald Trump is squealing like a stuck pig, I must have done something right” — prompted Trump to say the mayor was presiding over a “cesspool of corruption and of incompetence.” Koch in turn called Trump “greedy, greedy, greedy” and “piggy, piggy, piggy.”
The insults continued even after Koch’s death, when, in papers made public posthumously, Koch was quoted as saying: “Donald Trump is one of the least likable people I have met during the 12 years that I served as mayor. It is incomprehensible to me that for some people he has become a folk hero.”
Were Koch alive today to see Trump’s continued popularity among Republican voters, he would, no doubt, still be mystified.
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