Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

10 Anti-Semitic Tweets That Prove Trump’s Dog Whistling Was Real

A whole lot has been said about Trump’s disastrous (and, come on, Trump supporters, it was disastrous) performance during the Second Presidential Debate. From his shameful and insulting use of Bill Clinton’s accusers as props to his threat to literally imprison his opponent to his pacing around the debate floor like a trapped, orange animal, Trump really outdid himself in the department of troubling ridiculousness.

This includes his answers to the questions posed “town hall” style from a selected audience. He continuously hijacked peoples’ questions to go on completely unrelated tangents about emails, ISIS, Benghazi, China, and any number of completely question-unrelated, often completely fact-devoid subjects. The few times he actually came closest to answering questions that audience members asked, he managed to be offensive and myopic.

Another problematic behavior The Donald decided to carry forth into this debate? Dog whistling to his anti-Semitic fan base. He repeatedly and often completely tangentially mentioned noticeably Jewish-sounding names (Sidney Blumenthal, George Soros, Jonathan Gruber, and Debbie Wasserman-Shultz), all of whom he conjured up as corrupt holders of cabal-esque power who Clinton has in her pocket.

Though frustrating, it’s easy to dismiss those dog whistles and the anti-Semitic undertones they represent as minimal, something we can forget about. This, however, is arguably a mistake, and that becomes clearer as soon as you delve into the festering underbelly of Alt-Right Twitter. Rest assured (or, rather, don’t), because lots of people were listening out for those whistles, and hearing the call.

Here are ten Tweets (among many of their kind), just in reaction to the debate alone.

Of course, these are just people on the internet, but forgetting that they’re there and they’re hearing Trump when he calls out to them—however subtly, or not—is a mistake. He knows they’re there, and as he loses support among more and more of the mainstream right, he’s going to rely more and more on their support.

When you whistle loud enough and long enough, it’s always possible the dog will come.

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

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

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.