Trump Is 'Vile, Bigoted': Jewish Groups Slam President's Anti-Semitic Remarks

Jewish-American groups strongly condemned president Donald Trump's bigotry and anti-Semitism after an especially "vile" speech where Trump described Jewish businessmen as "brutal killers" and "not nice people at all” when they're business competitors.

J Street, a Jewish non-profit advocacy group, said "The President of the United States is incapable of addressing Jewish audiences without dipping into the deep well of anti-Semitic tropes that shape his worldview."

This group's aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically.

J Street later said, "We’re not going to hold our breath waiting for Trump's supporters to speak out. We are going to work tirelessly to defeat this president and those who’ve enabled him 11 months from now."

The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) was even angrier when it rebuked Trump's comments.

“We strongly denounce these vile and bigoted remarks in which the president -- once again -- used anti-Semitic stereotypes to characterize Jews as driven by money and insufficiently loyal to Israel,” said Halie Soifer, JDCA executive director. “He even had the audacity to suggest that Jews ‘have no choice’ but to support him.”

JDCA said Trump's "deeply offensive remarks", including his negative stereotypes of Jews, reinforces the group's belief that "Donald Trump is the biggest threat to American Jews."

Soifer also revealed Jewish support for Republicans has been slashed by more than half since Trump became president. This support has plunged to 17 percent in 2018 from 33 percent in 2014 because Trump’s policies and rhetoric are completely antithetical to Jewish values.

JDCA claimed an "overwhelming majority of Jews are both pro-Israel and anti-Trump" because of his incendiary rhetoric targeting Jews and others. It said American Jews also reject Trump because "he’s emboldened the rise of white nationalism in America, which has directly led to increased hatred and violence targeting Jews.”

JDCA and J Street were both reacting to inflammatory -- and to them, racist -- rants by Trump before the national conference of the Israeli American Council (IAC) Sunday. Established in 2007, IAC seeks to strengthen the relationship between American and Jewish citizens.

JDCA and J Street were especially outraged by Trump's remarks that American Jewish businessmen had no choice but to vote for him in 2020 because voting for the Democratic Party would mean higher taxes on their wealth.

"A lot of you are in the real estate business, because I know you very well," said Trump. "You’re brutal killers. Not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me you have no choice."

Trump also said Jews aren't going to vote for the wealth tax proposed by some Democratic presidential contenders, among them Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

"Yeah, let’s take 100% of your wealth away,” said Trump in attacking Warren during his speech.

Trump also repeated a previously debunked claim there are Jews in the U.S. that don't love Israel as much as he does. American Jews need to learn to love Israel more, “because you have people that are Jewish people, that are great people -- they don’t love Israel enough,” argued Trump.