Donald Trump was being interviewed by a Jewish radio host and made a very strange statement. He said that Israel used to own Congress but falsely claimed that they no longer own Congress.
Trump lifts the mask again: “Israel literally owned Congress… Israel has such power – and rightfully – over Congress, and now it doesn’t.” pic.twitter.com/uqzUkT89hh
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 1, 2021
It’s a strange statement for a few reasons.
First, it is undeniable that the Israeli lobby has had tremendous control and influence over Congress. If you look at the voting record of both Republicans and Democrats, they always come together to support Israel. There might be a small handful of outliers but they are few and far between.
Second, there is no evidence that the Israeli lobby has lost any of its influence. Congress is still overwhelmingly voting in favor of pro-Israel policies by a large margin.
Third, it is not right for Israel to have any such power or influence over Congress as Trump implies.
This whole series of statements from Trump was very strange. He exposes Israeli and Jewish influence over Congress, but says that it is bad that they’ve lost influence when they really haven’t lost any influence. At least not yet anyway.
Glenn Greenwald might be a gay Jew, but he’s right about Trump’s confusing statement.
There's so much going on here — being with Trump saying "Israel literally owned Congress" 10 years ago and "had such power over Congress": those are quite the statements — but the idea that AOC & Omar have such great power is absurd. The pro-Israel view is bipartisan consensus: https://t.co/XW0YLMzOBW
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 1, 2021
Then you have other Jews claiming Trump’s statement is anti-Semitic because of the only true thing he said.
Donald Trump continues to push antisemitic conspiracy theories, claiming that Israel "literally owned" Congress and making the vile accusation that Jewish Americans and Democrats hate Israel.
Every time Trump peddles in such blatant antisemitism, he puts our community in danger. https://t.co/jQXfuK9UlL
— Jewish Dems (@USJewishDems) November 1, 2021
I have no idea why he made such a weird series of remarks. Maybe some of you out there have a better idea as to what’s going on here. I’m not going to spend time trying to dissect this.