‘Do as I say….Not as I Do’?
President Trump demanded on Tuesday that a freshman lawmaker from Minnesota resign after she posted tweets deemed anti-Semitic even by fellow Democrats, but those tweets echoed some of the same insinuations about Jews and money that he has trafficked in for years, as a candidate and president.
Mr. Trump rejected the apology of Representative Ilhan Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, saying, “it was lame, and she didn’t mean a word of it.” Ms. Omar, he said, should leave the House or, at a minimum, give up her seat on a coveted committee.
“Anti-Semitism has no place in the United States Congress,” Mr. Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting. “Congressman Omar is terrible, what she said. And I think she should either resign from Congress or she should certainly resign from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.”
Ms. Omar issued her mea culpa after a bipartisan storm of protest over the tweets, in which she said that the United States’ support for Israel was paid for with money from a pro-Israel lobbying group. “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she wrote on Twitter, referring to $100 bills.
Mr. Trump was the latest in a parade of Republicans and Democrats to condemn Ms. Omar. But the president himself has perpetuated stereotypes of Jews using money to buy political influence or of acting as “globalists,” pulling the levers of power for their own enrichment.
In 2015, Mr. Trump told members of the Republican Jewish Coalition: “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians, that’s fine.” He added with admiration that it was a roomful of “negotiators,” leading some to object afterward that he was engaging in Jewish stereotypes.
During the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump’s final television commercial featured grainy images of George Soros, the Hungarian-born financier who has become a potent symbol for anti-Semites; Janet L. Yellen, then the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve; and Lloyd C. Blankfein, then the chairman of Goldman Sachs — all of them Jewish — as Mr. Trump warned darkly about the “global special interests.” Shadowy figures, he said, “partner with these people who don’t have your good in mind.”……
image…..NY Times …Ms Omar
image…..Vox…Trump
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) on Wednesday fired back at President Trump over his call for her resignation, accusing the president of “trafficking” in hate and intolerance.
In a tweet, Omar accused the president of discrimination against “Jews, Muslims, Indigenous, immigrants, black people and more,” adding that she learned from “people impacted” by comments she made that many, including fellow Democrats, called anti-Semitic.
“Hi @realDonaldTrump- You have trafficked in hate your whole life—against Jews, Muslims, Indigenous, immigrants, black people and more. I learned from people impacted by my words. When will you?” she tweeted Wednesday morning…..
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