Disloyal to What?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Disloyal to What?
The president often implies that what determines national loyalty is not citizenship but ethnicity, religion, and race.
AUG 21, 2019
TASOS KATOPODIS / REUTERS
Donald Trump isn’t only venomous; he’s also vague. So when he said yesterday that “any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” it wasn’t entirely obvious whom he was accusing Jewish Democrats of being disloyal to. But the most plausible explanation is that he was accusing them of being disloyal to Israel.
Why does Trump keep suggesting that American Jews are loyal to Israel? The answer may lie in his tribal concept of nationhood. Trump often implies that what determines a person’s national loyalty is not citizenship but ethnicity, religion, and race.
The first hint of this worldview came during Trump’s effort to prove that Barack Obama was not an American citizen. As evidence, Trump often claimed that Obama had been born outside the United States. But he interspersed these claims with allegations about Obama’s religion. In a 2011 interview with Laura Ingraham, Trump said he had been told that on Obama’s birth certificate, “where it says ‘religion,’ it might have [said] ‘Muslim’”—as if this cast doubt on Obama’s Americanness.
When Trump ran for president, he repeatedly suggested that Muslims—or alleged Muslims like Obama—were loyal to Islamist terrorist groups rather than the United States. In November 2015, Trump claimed to have seen “a heavy Arab population” in New Jersey “cheering as the buildings came down” on September 11. The following month he touted a bogus poll suggesting that one-quarter of American Muslims supported violence against the United States. In June 2016, he claimed that “there’s no real assimilation” even among “second- and third-generation” American Muslims. And that same month, Trump suggested that Obama secretly supported the Islamic State.
Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “America first,” implied that some Americans were not putting their country first. His inaugural address, which declared, “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America,” suggested that in the past, this allegiance had been lacking. And for Trump, it wasn’t only Muslims whose true allegiance lay outside America’s borders. While running for president, he claimed that the Indiana-born Mexican American judge Gonzalo Curiel was biased against him because “he’s a Mexican.” In its final ad , the Trump campaign featured images of three prominent Jews—George Soros, Janet Yellen, and Lloyd Blankfein—while it called for replacing “global special interests” that “don’t have your good in mind” with “a new government controlled by you, the American people.”
Bob Bauer: Michael Cohen reminded us why Trump’s birtherism matters
Since becoming president, Trump has continued to claim that prominent nonwhite or non-Christian Americans lack loyalty to the United States. He’s claimed that Omar is “pro Al-Qaeda.” And in an apparent reference to Omar, Tlaib, and fellow “squad” members Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he declared in July that “certain people HATE our Country.” This claim of disloyalty underlay Trump’s demand last month that the members of the squad “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” As many commentators noted, only Omar immigrated to the U.S. from a foreign country. But just as Trump called Curiel “a Mexican” and conflated American Jews with Israelis, he implied that it is the squad’s racial, religious, and ethnic ancestry that defines their true allegiance, not their Americanness, which he cast into doubt.
Trump’s conception of American identity is more inclusive of Jews than of Muslims and people of color. He praises “ Judeo-Christian values,” yet never “Islamic values.” By telling American Jews that Israel is their real country, however, and attacking them for opposing him, Trump subtly makes their status in the United States contingent too. It’s no coincidence that Trump implied in his final campaign ad that George Soros—whom he blames for aiding the “invasion” of America by nonwhite immigrants—is an enemy of the American people. If Jews like Soros become allies of Muslims, Latinos, and others who threaten America’s racial and religious hierarchies, then they are displaying disloyalty, and become little better than the squad.
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It’s worth remembering that, historically, Zionism and anti-Semitism have often gone hand in hand. In the early 20th century, politicians such as British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour and the leaders of interwar Poland, who saw Jews as a threat to the cultural integrity of their own nations, did their best to help Jews emigrate to the land that would become the state of Israel.
Trump hasn’t gone that far. But if you squint, you can see the implied threat: You Jews are guests here. Israel is your true home. You’re neglecting it. And if you keep repaying American hospitality with ingratitude, maybe you too should “go back” to the place you truly belong.
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Donald Trump isn’t only venomous; he’s also vague. So when he said yesterday that “any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” it wasn’t entirely obvious whom he was accusing Jewish Democrats of being disloyal to. But the most plausible explanation is that he was accusing them of being disloyal to Israel.
Why does Trump keep suggesting that American Jews are loyal to Israel? The answer may lie in his tribal concept of nationhood. Trump often implies that what determines a person’s national loyalty is not citizenship but ethnicity, religion, and race.
When Trump ran for president, he repeatedly suggested that Muslims—or alleged Muslims like Obama—were loyal to Islamist terrorist groups rather than the United States. In November 2015, Trump claimed to have seen “a heavy Arab population” in New Jersey “cheering as the buildings came down” on September 11. The following month he touted a bogus poll suggesting that one-quarter of American Muslims supported violence against the United States. In June 2016, he claimed that “there’s no real assimilation” even among “second- and third-generation” American Muslims. And that same month, Trump suggested that Obama secretly supported the Islamic State.
Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “America first,” implied that some Americans were not putting their country first. His inaugural address, which declared, “At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America,” suggested that in the past, this allegiance had been lacking. And for Trump, it wasn’t only Muslims whose true allegiance lay outside America’s borders. While running for president, he claimed that the Indiana-born Mexican American judge Gonzalo Curiel was biased against him because “he’s a Mexican.” In its final ad , the Trump campaign featured images of three prominent Jews—George Soros, Janet Yellen, and Lloyd Blankfein—while it called for replacing “global special interests” that “don’t have your good in mind” with “a new government controlled by you, the American people.”
Bob Bauer: Michael Cohen reminded us why Trump’s birtherism matters
Since becoming president, Trump has continued to claim that prominent nonwhite or non-Christian Americans lack loyalty to the United States. He’s claimed that Omar is “pro Al-Qaeda.” And in an apparent reference to Omar, Tlaib, and fellow “squad” members Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, he declared in July that “certain people HATE our Country.” This claim of disloyalty underlay Trump’s demand last month that the members of the squad “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” As many commentators noted, only Omar immigrated to the U.S. from a foreign country. But just as Trump called Curiel “a Mexican” and conflated American Jews with Israelis, he implied that it is the squad’s racial, religious, and ethnic ancestry that defines their true allegiance, not their Americanness, which he cast into doubt.
Trump’s conception of American identity is more inclusive of Jews than of Muslims and people of color. He praises “ Judeo-Christian values,” yet never “Islamic values.” By telling American Jews that Israel is their real country, however, and attacking them for opposing him, Trump subtly makes their status in the United States contingent too. It’s no coincidence that Trump implied in his final campaign ad that George Soros—whom he blames for aiding the “invasion” of America by nonwhite immigrants—is an enemy of the American people. If Jews like Soros become allies of Muslims, Latinos, and others who threaten America’s racial and religious hierarchies, then they are displaying disloyalty, and become little better than the squad.
I agree with this, but, I also think it was a lot of vote shaming. He is trying to shame Democratic Jews into voting for him, by insulting them. It's just plain stupid.
Jews are NOT stupid by any stretch of the imagination, they have heard trumps words over the last 3 years and they know he is a white supremacist. Then trump comes along and tells 70% of the Jews in the USA that they are essentially traitors? "Swing and a miss!!!!!!"
Yea, loved that one. 8 years of the right wing screaming that Obama was a Muslim for literally no other reason than his name sounds Muslim. Obama is a Christian, which is another reason why the, "Obama is a Muslim" BS started. Many right wing Christian Conservatives were appalled that a Black, Democrat POTUS was the same religion they are. It just blew too many holes in their narrative.
I don't agree with anti-semitism any more than I agree with anti-Muslim comments. But I do respect their right to express their opinions.
One thing I will never understand is why Jews happily support people like trump who are also supported by white supremacists, neo-nazi's, etc.. If trump wants to talk about Jews voting against their best interests, maybe he should start there.
Among this report’s key findings:
It's the same thing with Steve King who sees nothing wrong with trying to preserve "white culture" and many religious conservatives share their beliefs in some loyalty to race or ethnicity. I'm a straight white male, but I have no loyalty to or belief in separating people based on sexuality, race or ethnicity. It doesn't matter if you're a Mexican American, black American, lgtbq American or even a white Christian American, the most important identifier is "American" and that is all that matters. Most white Christian Americans feel the same, but sadly some do believe in an ethnic, religious and sexual orientation divide of which dishonest Donald and crazy Steve King are exploiting. They feed the divide with fear and hate, they tell those who cling to such nonsense that their way of life is under attack, that "white culture" needs to be preserved even if it means separating families at the border and indefinite detention of undocumented immigrants who have only committed the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally.
It's this focus and amplification of the divisions that created the El Paso shooter and so many other right wing extremists that are murdering dozens and dozens of innocent civilians each year. And when this is pointed out, many on the right who may not be right wing extremists yet, verbally defend the right wing extremists and attempt to deflect with embellished accounts of the non-lethal attacks on right wing extremist groups coming from anti-fascist groups as if there was an equivalence between punching a Nazi in the face and the 48 right wing inspired murders committed by right wing extremists last year.
Trump, Steve King and many other Republican legislators promote this idea of ethnic, racial and religious "loyalty" as if these aspects have already defined "teams" that must compete for space and resources instead of accepting the fact that America is a giant melting pot. We are better because of our diversity, we are better because of the many faiths, ethnicity, race and cultures coming together to make something new. Sadly, some half wit nasty bigots disagree and they proudly support this President because they heard his racist Trumpet call and came running.
Exactly... It's a strength, not a weakness.