Of all the promises, from quixotic to horrifying, that Donald Trump has made about the next four years, the one that seems least likely to be fulfilled is his vow<\/a> to \u201cdefeat anti-Semitism.\u201d He has nominated a slew of cranks who have dabbled in the oldest conspiracy theory of them all, a belief that Jews control the world.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade or so, pernicious lies about Jewish villainy have drifted into the mainstream of American life. That\u2019s a fact Trump acknowledges when he talks about his plans to \u201cdefend Jewish citizens in America.\u201d But he tends to focus on the problem at college campuses, which constitutes an incomplete diagnosis. It allows Trump to ignore his own complicity in unleashing the worst wave of anti-Jewish sentiment in generations.<\/p>\n

In his first administration, Trump provided rhetorical cover for supporters who blared hateful sentiments\u2014those \u201cvery fine people<\/a>,\u201d Kanye West<\/a>, and others<\/a>. This time, he\u2019s placing them in the line of presidential succession. If confirmed, this crew would comprise the highest-ranking collection of White House anti-Semites in generations.<\/p>\n

Take Matt Gaetz, Trump\u2019s nominee for attorney general. He is a fierce opponent of the Antisemitism Awareness Act<\/a>, which would curtail federal funding for institutions of higher education that fail to address the hatred of Jews when it flourishes on their campuses. There are principled reasons for rejecting the bill. But in the course of arguing against it, Gaetz revealed himself. He asserted<\/a> that the legislation\u2019s definition of anti-Semitism would penalize the belief that the Jews killed Jesus. This wasn\u2019t a point Gaetz made in the spirit of protecting free speech. He fervently believes it himself. \u201cThe Bible is clear. There is no myth or controversy on this,\u201d he posted on X<\/a>. This is the canard from which the whole Western tradition<\/a> of anti-Semitism flows, a belief officially repudiated by the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council<\/a> nearly 60 years ago.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t a stray expression. In 2018, Gaetz invited<\/a> Charles Johnson, a notorious figure on the alt-right, to attend the State of the Union address as his guest. Johnson is a textbook example of a Holocaust denier. He insists<\/a> that only 250,000 Jews died\u2014and only of typhus\u2014during World War II. In a Reddit \u201cAsk Me Anything\u201d session, he wrote that he agreed with a commenter \u201cabout Auschwitz and the gas chambers not being real.\u201d When confronted with Johnson\u2019s record, Gaetz admitted that he hadn\u2019t properly vetted Johnson before extending him an invitation. Even so, he told<\/a> Fox Business that Johnson is \u201cnot a holocaust denier.\u201d That defense, given all the evidence about Johnson presented to him, is tantamount to an endorsement.<\/p>\n

The essence of conspiracism is the description of the hidden hand, the ubiquity of all-powerful evildoers. That is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s overriding intellectual habit. He believes that the CIA killed his uncle<\/a>, and he attributes autism to vaccines<\/a>. In 2023, he was caught on video suggesting that COVID-19 might be a bioweapon<\/a>. Espousing such a theory should be disqualifying for the job of running America\u2019s public-health system. But he went further. He said that the disease was designed to attack Caucasians and Black people. \u201cThe people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.\u201d (In case it needs saying, this is false<\/a>.) As a well-practiced conspiracist, he knew to append his theory with a disclaimer, adding, \u201cWe don\u2019t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not,\u201d as if he were merely asking an innocent question. And when confronted with his own words, he denied any ill intent: \u201cI haven\u2019t said an anti-Semitic word in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Read: The sanewashing of RFK Jr.<\/a>]<\/p>\n

But his insinuation echoed the medieval Christian libel that Jews had poisoned the wells of Europe, unleashing the Black Death. Kennedy\u2019s winking accusation also mimics a strain of white-supremacist pseudoscience, which asserts that Ashkenazi Jews are a distinct race from Caucasians. According to this bizarre, and bizarrely prevalent, theory<\/a>, that\u2019s what makes Jews so pernicious: They can pass for white people while conspiring to undermine them.<\/p>\n

Not so long ago, these sorts of comments would have rendered a nominee unconfirmable\u2014or at least would have necessitated an excruciating apology tour. But anti-Semitism is no longer taboo. And it\u2019s telling that Trump has adopted Elon Musk as a primary adviser, because Musk is a chief culprit in the lifting of that taboo.<\/p>\n

When Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he reversed<\/a> a ban imposed by the company\u2019s previous regime that kept anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers off the platform. Under his ownership, anti-Jewish voices became unavoidable fixtures on the site, broadcasting<\/a> their bigoted theories without any fear of consequences.<\/p>\n

One reason they have little to fear is that Musk has displayed sympathy for their worldview. Like them, he harps on the wickedness of George Soros, whom he once likened<\/a> to the comic supervillain Magneto, a mutant who plots to wipe out humanity. (Like Soros, Magneto is a Holocaust survivor.) This comparison almost explicitly admits its exaggeration of Jewish nefariousness. And if the thrust of his sentiments wasn\u2019t clear enough, he emphatically endorsed<\/a> a tweet claiming that \u201cJewish communities have been pushing \u2026 dialectal hatred against whites.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a time, Musk refuted his critics by smearing them. He accused the Anti-Defamation League, the nation\u2019s leading Jewish civil-rights group, of orchestrating a campaign to destroy him. Eventually, to fend off an advertiser boycott, he apologized, visited Auschwitz<\/a>, and called himself \u201caspirationally Jewish<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presence of these conspiracists doesn\u2019t suggest that Trump will pursue policies that provoke Jewish suffering. His support for Israel might even win him the approval of a growing segment of organized Jewry. Instead, the danger posed by his appointees is that their mere presence in high office will make American anti-Semitism even more permissible; they will make conspiracies about Jews socially acceptable. Indeed, that might already have happened. Trump just proposed the most anti-Semitic Cabinet in recent history, and that fact has barely elicited a peep.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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