Jews for Trump
Articles from Jewish Journal and Gallup.
Protesters demonstrating outside Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City, Sept. 29, 2016. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images/JTA
Why every third American Jew supports Trump
By Shmuel Rosner, Jewish Journal
Marc 21, 2017
According to Gallup, President Donald Trump’s approval rating among US Jews is 31%. That is not very high, but it is also not very low. It is about the same percentage of Jews that voted for Trump. That is to say: the Jews have not changed their minds about Trump. Those who liked him half a year ago, still do. Those who disliked him, still do. They, as Gallup’s Frank Newport and Alyssa Davis put it, “are reacting to Trump along party lines in about the same way as other partisans.” Apparently, we are neither wiser no stupider than other human beings. In this era we are – like them – just “partisans.”
This means that the big scare concerning the Trump-ignited anti-Semitic wave did not impact the views of Jews in America. Those who oppose Trump were easily convinced that the president had a role in inflaming this wave of hateful speech and deeds, while those supporting him either don’t see a “wave” or don’t see any connection between the elected president and the wave.
This also means that Trump’s actions concerning Israel, thus far, have had little impact on his supporters and opponents. Supporters – most of them on the hawkish side – are not yet alarmed by the president’s somewhat bizarre obsession with Middle East peace making (or maybe their concerns with it are balanced by the tough love he has showed the anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council). Opponents – most of them on the dovish side – are not yet swayed by Trump’s investment in the peace process, his apparent intention to tame settlement activity, his refusal to be a cheerleader of Israel’s radical right-wingers.
Just “partisans.” So disappointing, and yet so reassuring. The Jews do not make their political choices in ways different from those of other Americans. They vote for the Democratic Party because they are used to doing it. They are used to doing it – and thus are well trained in explaining why theirs is the better choice. And, of course, it might be the better choice, as more than two thirds of them believe. But it is not the obviously better choice for everybody, as the other close-to-one-third of Jews demonstrate by supporting Trump.
Just “partisans.” And this, of course, complicates the relations within the Jewish community. The more America becomes polarized, the more a dialogue between Trump supporters and Trump opponents seems impossible, the harder it is for Jews of the two partisan camps to find common ground.
You might say: well, there are far more Jews opposing Trump than those supporting him. And this is true, but it is not the whole truth. When one counts all Jews – then yes, many more of them oppose Trump. But the fact that Jews from the groups who support Trump tend to be more active in the Jewish community, and more intensely engaged with Judaism (look at Pew’s numbers and see for yourself), complicates the picture. In Jewish organizations, among voters with strong Jewish consciousness, the pro-Trump and anti-Trump camps become more balanced.
These two camps have specific characteristics and different Jewish instincts. The anti-Trump camp is more universalist, while the other one is more tribal. The Trump camp is more Orthodox, the anti-Trump more progressive. These two camps have different interpretations of what Jewish Americanism means, and they have different readings of Jewish history and values. They have different strategies for dealing with the non-Jewish world.
A few months ago, Yehudah Mirsky published an article in The American Interest that, in my view, did not receive proper attention. Mirsky is a relatively rare Jewish breed: both universalist and tribal (at least, that’s the way I understand his views – Yehuda, you are free to call and correct me). He is, I dare to assume, a Democrat. He seems puzzled, possibly even horrified, by Trump.
He suggests an interesting thesis in the article: That the relations between American Jews and Trump echo past eras of Jewish history: “Trump’s candidacy”, he wrote, “has galvanized American anti-Semites like nothing has in decades, and yet he’s a New Yorker whose daughter converted to Judaism so she could marry, yes, an Orthodox Jew. The significance of this, as I’ve written elsewhere, is that Trumpism and its focus on the Great Leader has thrust Jewish politics back by centuries, to the time when all that mattered was the personal relationship between the sovereign and Jewish merchants with good connections, or in slightly less exalted circumstances between the poritz (the baron) and his transactionally useful Jewish intermediaries (schtadlanim).”
Mirsky does not specifically say this, but connecting the dots is easy: if Jewish-Trump relations are the reincarnation of a Jewish past, it is almost natural for the Jews who feel more comfortable with the Jewish past – Orthodox Jews – to feel comfortable with him. What does he offer them, and other tribal Jews? An alluring option of keeping their separate identity and custom while being protected by a friendly leader. The other option – to be an active and integrated player in the American political arena – is of less appeal to these groups of Trump supporters. It carries the danger of cultural assimilation that accompanies political integration.
And, of course, tribal Jews put more emphasis on Israel than other Jews. Israel – the Jewish State – is a tribal cause. A president who defends Israel, who supports it, for whatever reasons, is a president that the tribe ought to also support. A president that clashes with Israel, opposing its actions, criticizing it for being, well, tribal, is a president that the tribe ought to oppose.
31% of Jews approve of Donald Trump. This doesn’t mean that they are pleased with everything he does. This doesn’t mean that they think of him as the ideal president. This doesn’t means that they do not see his many deficiencies. It means that under the current circumstances they accept his shortcomings in an almost commercial-like exchange: support us and we will support you. Like Trump, these Jews speak the language of businessmen. That’s why he likes them – that’s why they like him.
Donald Trump during a campaign rally with, from left to right, his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, in Waterloo, Iowa, Feb. 1, 2016. Photo by Samuel Corum /JTA/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Trump’s Job Approval Among US Jews
By Frank Newport and Alyssa Davis, Gallup
March 17, 2017
President Donald Trump’s actions and policies have sent mixed signals to American Jews about their position in the country and his administration’s stance toward Israel.
Trump was criticized for being slow to denounce a wave of antisemitism, did not mention Jews in his statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day and appointed Steve Bannon, who has been accused of making antisemitic comments, as his chief strategist.
But Trump ultimately denounced antisemitism and relates to American Jews by emphasizing that his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, are Jewish.
Trump has taken some actions that signal he holds a strong pro-Israel stance. Before he took office, he denounced a U.N. resolution criticizing Israeli settlements on disputed land, condemned the Iranian nuclear deal and pledged to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He also appointed a U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who supports Israeli settlements.
But since taking office, he has cautioned President Benjamin Netanyahu to “hold off” on building new Israeli settlements, tempered his promise to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and invited Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to visit the White House.
During Trump’s time in office so far, encompassing a little less than two months, American Jews have given him a 31% job approval rating — 11 percentage points below his overall average of 42% during the same period.
This below-average rating of the Republican president is not unexpected. The dominant predictor of how an American rates the president is partisan orientation, and Jews tilt heavily Democratic — 64% identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party (Jan. 20-March 15 data), while 29% identify with or lean toward the Republican Party.
Trump’s 31% approval rating among Jews thus reflects this underlying partisan tilt, given that overall 84% of Republicans approve of Trump, compared with 10% of Democrats.
In the last year of his administration, Jewish job approval of President Barack Obama was 65%, about 13 points above his overall national adult average of 52%. This 13-point differential between Jewish and overall Obama approval was the same as observed across his entire administration.
So far, Trump’s approval rating among Jewish Democrats — the significant majority of all Jews — is little different from his rating among Democrats overall: Both are very low. Trump’s approval among the small number of Jewish Republicans in Gallup’s samples so far during his term also appears little different from Republicans in general.
This suggests that Jews are reacting to Trump along party lines in about the same way as other partisans.
Trump has a significant opportunity to boost his image among Jews, Americans and the world. During the campaign, Trump talked about using his negotiating skills, and those of Kushner, to reach a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. If Trump accomplishes what his predecessors could not by negotiating a peace deal, this could certainly affect his approval rating not only among American Jews but among all national adults.