In a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition this past December, was Mr. Trump referencing anti-Semitic stereotypes when he said, “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money.”? Or when he said to the same group, “Is there anyone in this room who doesn’t negotiate deals? Probably more than any room I’ve ever spoken.”?
What did Mr. Trump mean to communicate to the world when he re-tweeted a flagrantly anti-Semitic meme, juxtaposing a photo of Hillary Clinton against piles of money and a prominent Star of David?
Mr. Trump has indicated that he meant nothing at all, claiming that the Star of David was simply a plain old Sheriff's star. The larger question about this particular meme is how did Donald Trump even get a hold of it? He didn't create it, nor did anyone in his campaign create it. Over a week before Mr. Trump re-tweeted the offensive meme, this meme first appeared on 8ch.net/pol/, an alt-right message board for neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and anti-Semites.
It should be noted that one day after Mr. Trump made his charges that Hillary Clinton was meeting, “...in secret with international banks to plan the destruction of global sovereignty in order to enrich these global interest powers...”, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism Director Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner released a statement reading, in part:
We condemn, in the clearest and most forceful terms possible, Donald Trump's remarks evoking classically anti-Semitic stereotypes...It defies belief to assume that Mr. Trump is unaware of the anti-Semitic associations of the messages he is espousing – nor can he be unaware that such