USA TODAY - President Donald Trump at a Dec. 16 White House Hanukkah event praised the "enduring resilience" of the Jewish people in the face of rising antisemitic attacks, including most recently an attack in Australia that left 15 dead.
"The miracle of Hanukkah has reminded us of God’s love for the Jewish people as well as their enduring resilience and faith in the face of centuries of persecution," Trump told a room of prominent Jewish American and Israeli supporters. "And it continues, who would believe this would continue?!"
Tuesday evening’s White House event comes days after the Dec. 14 attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach outside Sydney. Trump offered his condolences for the victims before listing his acts of support for Israel, from moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem during his first term as president to bombing Iranian nuclear facilities in June.
"As president of the United States, I will always support Jewish Americans," Trump said, "and I will always be a friend and a champion of the Jewish people."
U.S. President Donald Trump holds a kippah featuring an image of himself and text that reads "Fight" on it, during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C.
The president also cited his crackdown on America’s top universities the White House has accused of antisemitism and efforts to broker a peace in Israel. BBC and Al Jazeera reports say Israel continues to mount attacks in Gaza.
Trump called a few supporters to the stage, including conservative talk show host Mark Levin and Trump donor Miriam Adelson.
The Israel-born wife of deceased Jewish American businessman Sheldon Adelson offered to donate a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump if he were to run for a third term. The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution bars Trump from serving a third term in office.
Levin referred to Trump as the nation's "first Jewish president."
"Now he’s our first Jewish president to serve two not-consecutive presidencies," the talk show host said, holding an arm around Trump. "You are the greatest president."
The event also comes as the Republic Party faces a rift over its stance on antisemitism after prominent conservative media figure Tucker Carlson interviewed Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has become influential in the fringes of the Make America Great Again movement.
Carlson's interview with Fuentes comes on the heels of at least four recent instances of Republican officials being associated with Nazi symbology or ideology, including reports of young GOP group members joking about gas chambers; the Trump administration pulling a nominee for saying he had a "Nazi streak," a swastika within a U.S. flag being spotted in a Republican congressman's office and the revelation that an online neo-Nazi influencer is married to a local Republican elected official in Michigan.
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Who would believe this would continue?
Anybody who read the Torah.
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Dear Mrs. Adelson,
I will do it for less. Give me a hundred million and I'll run. I will even learn how to say looney things like Trump and will be even more pro Israel.
