Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump championed himself as the ultimate ally to Jewish Americans. He touted promises of ending antisemitism in American government and college campuses, as well as promising to be a staunch ally to Israel as its leadership continues its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
According to data collected by the Pew Research Center, around 90 percent of Jewish Americans say they think discrimination against Jews has risen in the United States since Israel’s militarized response following the Oct. 7 attacks. Trump has capitalized on this by continuing to state his “unwavering” support for Jewish Americans by demonizing and attacking those who oppose Israel’s handling in its response to the Hamas attack in 2023.
However, the president’s actions show he cares little to none about Jewish Americans, Palestinian Americans or any other marginalized people. One of the first actions Trump took as president was to completely gut and cut Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs from federally-funded entities, including but not limited to the college campuses where Trump and many others claim antisemitism runs deep. The president also made moves to completely dismantle the Department of Education, cutting federal funding to public K-12 schools and higher education institutions.
These cuts paired with a history of antisemitism, Islamophobia and just overall ignorance and unwillingness to educate himself on facts make one thing clear: Trump is no ally to the Jewish community, the Palestinian people or any group who faces or has faced persecution and violence.
What is DEI?
DEI encompasses people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations. Initiatives included in the DEI umbrella will often provide opportunities for groups who have historically been discriminated against. This can include, but is not limited to:
- Members of the LGBTQ+ community
- People of Color
- People over the age of 65
- Indigenous people
- Folks who practice religions other than Christianity, such as Judaism or Islam
- Veterans
For individuals from marginalized groups, DEI policies can provide essential support and opportunities for career advancement that might otherwise be inaccessible.
For customers, or students when it comes to universities, DEI policies can improve the overall experience. When companies or schools are diverse and inclusive, they are able to better understand and meet the needs of an entire population instead of just certain groups.
A reversal of decades of progress
According to reporting from CNN, while the backlash against DEI spiked following the murder of George Floyd and the racial reckoning which followed, DEI has been in place for decades. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, which works to eliminate employment discrimination.
President John F. Kennedy, prior to the Civil Rights Act, also signed an executive order implementing affirmative action — a policy requiring federal contractors by executive order to treat applicants and employees equally based on race, color, religion and sex. Affirmative action was something all historically marginalized groups could benefit from, including Jewish Americans.
Universities used affirmative action to admit more students of color at majority-White schools, and this included Jewish students. Prior to the 1930s, highly selective universities such as the Ivy League and elite women’s colleges used legacy and donor gift factors as a weight to determine students’ admission. This resulted in those who were disproportionately economically impoverished being systematically barred from these institutions, including Jewish applicants.
Affirmative action guaranteed all qualifying students — regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation — would be given the same treatment. However, the conservative majority U.S. Supreme Court (with three Trump-appointed justices) ruled race-conscious college admissions were unconstitutional, effectively ending affirmative action and protections for college admittance for Jewish students.
Trump’s cuts to DEI programs have also impacted the presence of Jewish student organizations on college campuses, as the cuts to federal funding threaten the existence of these entities. Wesleyan University President Michael Roth, the first Jewish president of Wesleyan, told Morning Edition that the White House is “using antisemitism as a cloak” to try to get educational institutions to pledge allegiance to his agenda.
“When you see these attacks on different universities ranging from saying to cancel your DEI programs, which really just means canceling access or fairness on your campus, or canceling research projects on diabetes or tuberculosis. Canceling those programs will not protect Jews,” Roth explained. “I know that antisemitism is a real thing and it’s on the rise worldwide. But this is like using antisemitism as a cloak to do other things, to get universities to express loyalty to the president. And this is new terrain for the United States. We have to call it out, because it really has nothing to do with stopping antisemitism.”
Roth addressed in this interview the increase in Jewish Americans flocking to support Trump is rooted in the “Trump administration’s support for Israel” in the months following the Oct. 7 attacks. However, Roth states in this interview that while he supports “Israel’s right to defend itself,” that doesn’t mean what the Israeli military and government is doing is right.
“I think that the Trump administration’s support for Israel has attracted many Jews who feel beleaguered by their fellow citizens being critical of the current Israeli government. I myself support Israel’s right to defend itself. I don’t applaud the way they’re conducting a war in Gaza, which has displaced so many people and killed so many children and other noncombatants,” he says. “But I understand that my fellow Jews often think somebody who supports Israel must be good for us. But … supporting Trump because he supports Israel, even though he’s violating the law, even though he’s violating civil rights, is going to turn bad for the Jews. Because we depend on the rule of law, we depend on civil rights, and we abandon them at our peril.”
The Oct. 7 attacks launched by Hamas killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people into captivity in Gaza, according to the Israeli government.
According to the most recent data from Reuters, the Palestinian Ministry of Health states those killed up until March 22 includes 50,021 people, ranging from a newborn baby to a 110-year-old. Of those, 15,613 or 31% were under 18.
The reported numbers likely undermine the full scale of casualties, as many individuals remain trapped beneath debris. The ministry estimates that approximately 10,000 bodies have yet to be accounted for, with only a small number recovered following the ceasefire.
A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet in January suggests that during the first nine months of the Gaza conflict, the official death toll was likely underestimated by about 40%, largely due to the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system. The United Nations human rights office has also indicated that the Palestinian-reported numbers may fall short of the actual count. In previous conflicts in Gaza, U.N. estimates have at times surpassed those provided by Palestinian authorities.
Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people resulted in protests happening across American college campuses, with America’s next generation leading the charge in advocating for a ceasefire and an end to the blatant ethnic targeting of Palestinians by the Israeli government. Trump’s administration has made an effort to target students who participate in these protests, something the Jewish coalition brought together by the nonpartisan Jewish Council for Public Affairs claims is putting more Jewish Americans in danger than ever before.
This coalition released a statement condemning the administration’s approach to pro-Palestinian protests, part of which reads:
“In recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding. Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech. Universities have an obligation to protect Jewish students, and the federal government has an important role to play in that effort; however, sweeping draconian funding cuts will weaken the free academic inquiry that strengthens democracy and society, rather than productively counter antisemitism on campus.
“These actions do not make Jews—or any community—safer. Rather, they only make us less safe.”
It’s clear as day: Trump doesn’t care about Jewish Americans. He’s using the rise of antisemitism, which resulted from the actions of the Israeli government and its blatant disregard for the Palestinian existence, to try to grab at any ounce of power he can muster.