What should Jews make of Donald Trump?

Yes on Israel, big nope on the rest of the world

Trump: A friend of the Jews?

It’s all going so well, isn’t it? Last week alone, Donald Trump cancelled $400 million of funding to Columbia University because of the antisemitism there. He also welcomed eight former Israeli hostages to the Oval Office, which — if you gloss over Trump’s crass response (“I've saved a lot of people, but I’ve never seen anything like this”) — was quite the statement of solidarity.

Was Trump the reason they were freed? They certainly thought so, which puts another tick in the orange ledger. After the meeting, he posted on X that he was “sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job”, which followed his “shalom Hamas” statement. Good stuff. Joyfully, the President’s policy on Israel has so far has left very little “daylight” between Washington and Jerusalem. Unlike the Biden years.

Trump’s plan for Gaza may have been bizarre and perhaps not entirely practicable, but it was a breath of fresh air that was applauded by many ordinary Palestinians (so long as it doesn’t involve forced expulsions). And at least it didn’t preeningly flog the luxury horse of the two-state solution, which could not be deader right now.

It was concerning when Trump wrote to the Ayatollah of Tehran requesting nuclear negotiations. This would likely be a disaster; the Iranians are masters of stringing out talks while quietly advancing with their malign ambitions. They need to be stopped, not appeased. But Trump has a history of toughness on Iran and has already brought back ‘maximum pressure’. One letter does not a disaster make. At least, not yet.

Overall, you’d think Jews would be cheering. But the joy rather stuck in the throat when Trump and JD Vance shamefully humiliated Volodymyr Zelensky at that stomach-turning press conference in Washington. It went downhill from there. It’s all very well winning on Israel and antisemitism but not when the Western alliance, American democracy and the stability of the world hangs in the balance. Does it matter that Zelensky’s Jewish?