Trump says Netanyahu told him Jews vote Democrat out of ‘habit’
GOP nominee also claims Democrats ‘hate Israel’ in speech to Jewish donors in New Jersey, day after he said any Jew who votes for Harris should ‘have their head examined’
Republican US presidential nominee Donald Trump told a group of Jewish party donors in New Jersey on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told him in their recent meeting that Jews vote for the Democratic Party from “habit,” then repeated his assertion that “Democrats hate Israel.”
The former US president said that during their meeting in Florida on Friday, he asked Netanyahu why “people that are Jewish” vote for the Democratic party and that the premier answered: “It’s a habit, it’s almost a habit. They are used to voting for Democrats.”
“The Democrats hate Israel,” Trump then said, apparently no longer quoting Netanyahu, in a recording obtained by Belaaz News.
The comments come a day after Trump said that Jews who support presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris or the Democratic Party should “have their head examined,” after the US vice president’s “terrible and insulting” meeting with Netanyahu last week and her absence from the prime minister’s speech to Congress.
The word “insulting” was put in quotation marks. It was unclear who Trump was quoting.
Trump also wrote on his social media platform that Harris’s “ineptness” would “greatly prolong” the war in Gaza and prevent the release of the hostages Hamas is holding there.
????????✡️ — BELAAZ EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump told a group of Jewish donors in Deal, NJ tonight that he asked Israeli PM Netanyahu during their meeting at Mar-a-Lago on Friday – “Why do Jews still vote for Democrats?”
According to Trump, Netanyahu replied, “It's a habit.”
Trump then… pic.twitter.com/CnTVf4bCRH
— Belaaz News (@TheBelaaz) July 29, 2024
Trump has a history of accusing Jewish Democrats of betraying their religion and Israel.
In April, when US President Joe Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee, Trump had also said that Jewish Biden voters “should have their head examined.”
Netanyahu met with Trump in Florida last week for discussions that appeared to be part of Netanyahu’s reported bid to mend fences with the Republican candidate.
Netanyahu met separately with Harris and Biden at the White House on. After meeting the prime minister, Harris said she would “not be silent” over Palestinian civilians’ suffering in Gaza.
Her speech drew an Israeli allegation that Harris’s highlighting the “dire humanitarian crisis” in the Strip and the need to “end the war” there could toughen Hamas’s stance in negotiations to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by the terror group.
Harris also branded Hamas a “brutal” terror organization that triggered the ongoing war with its October 7 onslaught, and noting that it included “horrific acts of sexual violence.” The US vice president additionally made a point of reading out the names of all eight American-Israel hostages still held captive by Hamas.
After meeting Netanyahu on Friday, Trump wrote that Harris is part of the administration “that embarrassed us in AFGHANISTAN” and was now “telling Israel not to fight any longer with Hamas.”
Trump said Harris had “refused to preside over Congress during [Netanyahu’s] speech, which is an obligation of the [vice president].”
“Rarely has such a thing happened,” wrote Trump.
The US vice president, who is president of the US Senate, traditionally sits at the chamber’s rostrum during foreign leaders’ addresses. Citing a scheduling conflict, Harris declined to do so at Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, which was also boycotted by nearly 70 Democratic lawmakers.
“Any Jewish person who votes for Kamala, or a Democrat, should immediately have their head examined. Likewise Catholics, who are being persecuted by this Administration, should not be voting for radical left Kamala,” Trump wrote.
Later on Friday, Trump claimed at a religious convention in southern Florida that Harris, whose husband and stepchildren are Jewish, had skipped Netanyahu’s Wednesday address due to antisemitism.
“She doesn’t like Jewish people. She doesn’t like Israel,” said Trump. “That’s the way it is, and that’s the way it’s always going to be. She’s not going to change.”
The remark — coupled with his claim that Harris “is totally against the Jewish people” in North Carolina on Wednesday — marked an escalation in Trump’s incendiary rhetoric, days after his campaign said an attempt on his life had given him a focus on unity.
Harris has all but secured the Democratic Party’s nomination for president after Biden, 81, decided not to seek reelection amid intense concern over his age and mental acuity.
Polls have shown Harris running neck-and-neck with Trump, who had solidly led Biden since the US president’s halting debate performance on June 27. Analysts say Harris’s ascent has caught the Trump campaign unprepared and that Trump is workshopping lines of attack on her at his rallies.
AFP contributed to this report.
