Trump aware of who is Jewish in a ‘creepy’ way, says tell-all book’s author
Michael Wolff tells media the US president is sexist and racist, but stops short of labeling him anti-Semitic
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The author of a tell-all book on the Trump administration on Tuesday said the US president knows which people around him are Jewish in a “creepy” way.
Michael Wolff, who wrote “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” was asked by Katy Tur of MSNBC whether Donald Trump was sexist and racist.
“Yes,” Wolff replied.
Asked if Trump was also an anti-Semite, Wolff did not answer directly.
“I’ve had this specific discussion with Steve Bannon, who thought not,” said Wolff.
Then he added, “I think that he’s aware of who is Jewish in a way that feels creepy.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year defended Trump from charges of anti-Semitism, saying “there is no greater supporter of the Jewish people and the Jewish state than Donald Trump.”
It was Bannon — Trump’s former senior strategist, fired by the US president in August — who helped give Wolff access to the White House to carry out research for his bombshell book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ7nFPW-hT4
Trump, who tried but failed to prevent publication of the book, has denounced it as a work of fiction.
Among other topics, the book explores tensions between Bannon and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over Israel.
Trump tasked Kushner, who is Jewish, with leading the administration’s efforts to broker a peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians.
“One of Bannon’s accusations against Kushner, the administration’s point person on the Middle East, was that he was not nearly tough enough in his defense of Israel,” Wolff says in the book. “Bannon did not hesitate to ding Kushner on Israel, that peculiar right-wing litmus test. Bannon could bait Jews – globalist, cosmopolitan, liberal Jews like Kushner – because the farther right you were, the more correct you were on Israel.”
