Opinion |
Another Trump Term in the U.S. Will Be Dangerous and Cruel. Jews and Israelis
Should Know That
Michael Berenbaum
Jun 11, 2024 in Ha’aretz
In December 2020, a month before Donald J. Trump unwillingly left office, George
Packer wrote in The Atlantic “America under Trump became less free, less equal, more
divided, more alone, deeper in debt, swampier, dirtier, meaner, sicker, and deader. It
has also become more delusional.”
And that was only at the end of his first term.
Since then, Trump has only gotten worse. The Republicans, whose establishment wing
thought that after his defeat and especially following the events of the January 6 attack,
they would be rid of him, has instead been taken over by Trump and his supporters.
The guardrails to his total domination have been removed altogether. In a second term,
there will be only loyalists left – their one qualification, fidelity to “the great leader”.
Plans are underway by the Trump camp, for example, to politicize the civil service,
whose rules and norms have protected against politicization, in a bid to maximize
presidential power, bypassing Congress and the courts.
We know who Trump is because even as he repeatedly lies (a documented 30,000 just
in his first term), he has repeatedly revealed his true nasty self. Judging by his rally
rants and behavior, he is only getting worse, boding for an even more dangerous
possible second term.
If some fear the intellectual decline of an aging President Joe Biden, I suspect we have
more to fear from a grievance-filled, emotionally unhinged, declining Trump who will –
even more than his first term — have no one around with the strength or willingness to
stand up to him.
Israelis should appreciate the danger of having a leader who cannot distinguish
between what is good for himself and what is good for the country. Of this we
Americans can be certain: given the choice between what is good for Trump and what is
good for the country, in a second term, like his first, he will always, choose what is good
for Trump. His narcissism is so deep, so profound, that self-interest and dominance are
perhaps his only priorities.
Jews should know the danger of a charismatic leader fueled by grievances and
entrusted with power can strike out at will at those who impede his desires. One can
argue whether Trump is or is not an antisemite, the question doesn’t interest me. Not
subject to dispute is that his depiction of Jews reinforces many of the worst antisemitic
tropes and is regarded by antisemites as code to reinforce and even strengthen their
hateful views of Jews.
Trump has fortified (if I am charitable, I can say unknowingly, intuitively) these basic
antisemitic stereotypes:
— Jews control via their money: In an address to the National Jewish Republican
Coalition he said: “You’re not going to support me even though I’m the best thing that
could ever happen to Israel. It’s because I don’t want your money.”
— Jews are loyal only to Israel: He accuses American Jews who vote for the Democrats
of being disloyal to Israel, disloyal to their faith and introduced Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu to the National Republican Coalition as “Your Prime Minister,” clearly
reinforcing the smear of dual loyalty, and a misperceiving of American Jews’ relationship
to Israel.
Trump also promotes conspiracy theories, including ones that single out Jews. A
recurring target is George Soros who he said sponsors an invasion of the southern
border by immigrants who “poison the blood of America.”
He undermines institutions that hold the Republic together as a democracy. Repeatedly
we hear comments like this: “The system is rigged; the election is stolen; the courts are
rigged; the trial in New York is a political witch hunt by a George Soros-sponsored
District Attorney.”
He continues to endorse candidates who advance conspiracy theories, openly
antisemitic ones, including Holocaust denial. He dines with them and invites them to
Mar-o-Largo.
He has failed to call out white supremacy and we must remember Trump’s claim there
were “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville, where openly antisemitic
demonstrators endangered Jews, surrounded a synagogue with men holding semi-
automatic rifles on a Sabbath morning and chanted “Jews will not replace us.” Christian
nationalists feel empowered to call for explicit recognition of the United States as a
Christian nation. This is not good for the Jews.
Trump is a danger to democracy itself, which is terrible for American Jews and all
Americans, let alone the world. The peaceful transfer of power is the non-negotiable
foundation of democracy and Trump could not and cannot accept defeat. That alone
should disqualify him in the eyes of U.S. citizens. But delusion has triumphed and grown
deep roots in the Republican Party.
A special danger for Jews and other minorities, Trump has injected deep hatred into the
political discourse of the United States. Hatred unleashed ultimately targets the Jews,
subjects of what Robert Wistrich called “The Longest Hatred.”
It is axiomatic, the more stable a society, the more secure its Jews. The converse is
also true. As a leader who dominates by chaos, Trump might come to power in an
increasingly chaotic world with wars in Ukraine and in Gaza and pending conflicts in
Lebanon, Iran and the Houtis.
Like many Jews, I am strongly pro-Israel and, like my Israeli relatives, I distinguish
between being pro-Israel and pro-the Israeli government. My engagement with Israel is
deep. I studied, lived and worked in Israel and my Hebrew is fluent and my children
have also studied there. An observant Jew, I will do all that I can to make sure that
Donald J. Trump does not return to the White House.
The reasons are many: personal, political, moral, and yes, specifically Jewish ones.
As I’ve suggested, Trump has proven his cruelty and in a second term will have no
incentive to reign it in. For American Jews looking for reassurances that they will again
find their footing after feeling the sting of antisemitism rear its head, as it has in the last
year especially, the specter of another four years of Trump reminds us that he is exactly
what we do not need.
Also of particular concern to minorities, including Jews, is his routine accusations of
others of nefarious acts. He seeks to achieve power by dividing and not uniting, turning
Americans against one another rather than toward one another.
Trump also poses an acute danger to national security. That is not just a judgment I
make, but the conclusion of many who have served in National Security and other roles
during his first terms. He would not oppose Russia’s conquest of Ukraine, he would
weaken NATO and draw closer to the authoritarian rulers, whose control over their own
governments he so admires.
A dire question American Jews and Israelis must ask themselves is: how reliable will
Trump be in handling the multiple crises Israel faces? Some Israelis do not believe that
support for Netanyahu and his extreme right coalition is the same as support for the
people of Israel. And we must remain vigilant as Trump’s support is always
transactional.
He is not a president who can be relied on to send warships to restrain Iran and
Hezbollah or coordinate a response to direct attacks from Iran. Trump’s “go it alone”
attitude would only exacerbate Israel’s increasing isolation in the world.
I also can’t imagine Trump willing to pay a major political price for his support for Israel
as his successor and opponent has done.
Furthermore, Trump’s isolationism would be a disaster for the world and could even be
an existential threat for Israel – especially as we saw him distance himself from
Israel and from Netanyahu – suddenly in his mind a weakened and failed leader — in
immediate aftermath of October 7.
Unleashed from re-election concerns – except if he chooses to “suspend” the
Constitution and impose himself on us for a third term — and with plans to dismantle
government institutions and policies as we know them – he poses a significant threat to
liberal democracy which has been so good for the Jews.
American institutions held during Trump’s first term. He and his political and ideological
supporters are now imagining ways that they can bypass or override them. I fear that
the United States would not be recognizable in 2028 and that is of ultimate concern to
me as an American. Franklin Foer has asked whether the “Golden Age of American
Jewry” has ended. An America that reelects Trump would be a country guaranteed to
decline and we Jews would not be exempt from that decline.
Michael Berenbaum is a Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and Director of the
Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust at
the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. Formerly he was Executive Editor of the
Second Edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica and Project Director overseeing the
creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
