During a Thursday address to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Annual Leadership Summit, former President Donald Trump pondered why his support is not higher among Jewish voters.
His rhetorical question to the crowd of Israel supporters came as he’s attempted to capitalize on the dissatisfaction with the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza to make inroads with Jewish voters he lost in 2020 by a roughly 3:1 margin.
Trump has seen a slight gain with Jewish voters in New York now that he’s up against Vice President Kamala Harris. He went from trailing former President Joe Biden at 52%-46% to leading Harris at 50%-49%.
Trump still likely remains far behind nationally, although polling has been limited since Harris became the Democratic presidential nominee. It was evident the tick upward in New York failed to please Trump, who offered a roughly 15-minute speech via live web call to the gathering.
“We got 26% after four years after I did more for Israel than any other president by far, and this year, we’re probably around the 50% mark,” he said. “But I only ask you, who are the 50% of Jewish people that are voting for these people that hate Israel and don’t like the Jewish people? Why are they voting? How do they exist?”
Trump went on to describe a dystopian end to Israel and that it will be “abandoned” if Harris is elected.
Despite pressure and frustration from the far-left, Harris has resisted calls to withhold military support from Israel and take a more hard-line stance with the U.S. ally, but she has advocated a ceasefire.
Trump also laid blame on the Biden administration, including Harris, for Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack last year by being weak on Iran’s terrorism funding and insisted he would not have allowed it to occur if he were still in the White House.
“If Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are looking for another cause of this crisis, they should do nothing more than look in the mirror,” Trump said. “They are the cause. They gave you no support. They gave Israel no support. The Oct. 7 attack on Israel would never have happened if I was president. Zero chance.”
He also repeated claims that the bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would not have taken place under his watch.
The Israel attack line has been a popular theme at this year’s Republican Jewish Coalition, which began Wednesday and runs through Friday in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Prominent Republican lawmakers and officials, including Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Steve Daines (R-MT), Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), and RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, made similar accusations that Biden and Harris were to blame for the Gaza war or have played a prominent role in it dragging on for nearly a year.
Some went a step further to suggest that Biden and Harris were at fault for the latest Israeli hostages who were killed by Hamas, even as Israeli protests target Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Scott, who’s up for reelection this fall and seeking to become the next Senate GOP leader in the next Congress, implied the half-dozen hostages may still be alive if Biden had not previously urged Netanyahu to limit its military operations due to high civilian casualties.
“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris threatened Netanyahu and withheld weapons to stop him from going into Rafah,” Scott said in reference to the delay of certain bombs earlier this year amid U.S. concern over civilians. “Maybe if they hadn’t impeded Israel’s advance, these innocent lives would be alive today.”