Donald Trump Mocks Hillary Clinton With Anti-Semitic Tweet, Deletes After Backlash

Donald Trump, the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee, Saturday prompted a social media outrage after he tweeted an image of rival Hillary Clinton alongside dollar bills and a Jewish star bearing the words “most corrupt candidate ever!” before replacing it with a similar tweet without the Star Of David.

Two hours after the original tweet, which originated from Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, the six-pointed Star of David was replaced by a circle.

The star, which appears on Israel’s flag, is closely associated with the atrocities of the Holocaust as the Jews were forced to wear it on their clothing by the Nazis. Critics said the image featuring the star was based out of centuries-old anti-Semitic stereotypes — like the belief that Jews are greedy.

Abe Foxman, the director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, called the tweet “insensitive” but the campaign’s decision to delete the tweet within a few hours acted as a reassurance, he told CNN.

“They realized it was edgy and could be abused. I’m not sure the intentions were there but there was certainly a lack of sensitivity,” Foxman said.

Surprisingly enough, Trump’s daughter Ivanka is also an observant Jew, after having converted to Judaism before her marriage to businessman Jared Kushner. Trump has three Jewish grandchildren.

However, he has also been slow to disassociate himself from anti-Semitic white supremacists who have staunchly supported his bid for candidacy.

In the past, other than his anti-Muslim rhetoric, Trump has also allegedly mocked a disabled newspaper reporter, referred to undocumented immigrants from Mexico as “rapists” and recently pointed to a black man in the crowd at one of his rallies and called him “my African-American.”

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, did not respond to a request for comment on whether someone inside Trump’s campaign made the image or whether he found it somewhere else, Reuters reported.

The Clinton campaign declined official comment, according to ABC News. However, Trump’s original tweet, and its subsequent disappearance, attracted the notice of Clinton campaign national spokesman, Josh Schwerin.