The Dangerous Bargain: Why Many Jews Support Trump — and the Risks It Carries

By Jerry Elman, March 27, 2025

As the son of Holocaust survivors, and as an author focused on the history of hatred toward Jews, the Holocaust, and the Israel-Palestinian conflict, I’ve grown accustomed to backlash. I receive it from both the far right and the progressive left — from those who openly hate Jews, and from those who disguise their Jew-hate by attacking Israel. Virtually all of it is online with my blogs and posts. This doesn’t surprise me anymore. I’ve accepted it as part of the cost of writing and speaking out about the Jewish experience, identity, and survival.

But what continues to trouble me — deeply — is the blowback I receive from fellow Jews who support the MAGA cause. Even from fellow second generation survivors who know the outcome of the 1930’s in Germany.

Their attacks and vitriol are, at times, as bad or worse than those from people who wish to see Jews erased from history. To these Jews, loyalty to Donald Trump and his support for Israel are all that matter. They treat any criticism of Trump as betrayal — even when it involves his embrace of white nationalists, his antisemitic tropes, or his alliances with people who deny the Holocaust or dream of a world without Jews.

Yet I don’t hate these Jews. I don’t attack them back. In fact, I understand the trap they’ve fallen into. And that’s what worries me most — because their loyalty to Trump may offer short-term validation, but it is a long-term threat to the safety and future of all Jews.

Trump’s Support for Israel: Transactional, and Rooted in Evangelical Prophecy

There’s no question that Trump advanced key policies that Israel welcomed: moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights, withdrawing from the Iran deal, and supporting normalization with Arab states through the Abraham Accords. These actions were not minor — they were geopolitically significant, and they won Trump support from many Israelis and pro-Israel advocates worldwide.

But his support for Israel was never about Jews. It was about politics — and prophecy.

Trump’s most loyal and powerful political base is the white evangelical Christian movement, and for many of them, support for Israel is driven not by love for Jews, but by belief in an apocalyptic theology.

In this theology — particularly among dispensationalist evangelicals — the return of Jews to Israel is a necessary step in fulfilling biblical prophecy. Once gathered in their land, Jews play their final role: as the catalyst for the Second Coming of Jesus. At that point, in this belief system, they must either convert or perish.

To evangelicals, Israel is not the fulfillment of Jewish sovereignty. It is the setting for a Christian endgame.

This is the theological bedrock undergirding much of Trump’s Middle East policy. His pro-Israel gestures helped maintain the loyalty of this religious voting bloc. In their eyes, he was chosen — even divinely ordained — to advance the timeline of God’s plan. Evangelical leaders praised him in biblical terms, calling him a “modern-day Cyrus.”

This is not support grounded in Jewish values, Jewish safety, or Jewish continuity. It is support that uses Jews as pawns in someone else’s prophecy — one that ends with our erasure.

Why Trump is Cracking Down on Campus Antisemitism — And Why It’s Not Because He Cares About Jews

In recent months, Trump has begun positioning himself as a hardliner against antisemitism on college campuses, promising to punish universities that allow “pro-Hamas” or “anti-Israel” protests. This has won him praise from some Jewish conservatives — but we must be clear-eyed about what’s really going on.

Trump isn’t doing this out of solidarity with Jews. He’s doing it because:

1. It aligns with his “anti-woke” crusade.
   He’s using Jewish pain to attack liberal universities and progressive student movements — not to address antisemitism itself.
2. It fits his law-and-order strongman image.
   Framing protests as dangerous chaos, and portraying himself as the one who will “crack down,” fuels his brand of authoritarian control.
3. It allows him to demonize the left while ignoring right-wing antisemitism.
   Trump focuses only on campus-based, progressive antisemitism — while completely ignoring the rise of antisemitism among his own far-right base.
4. It appeases evangelical and pro-Israel donors.
   Evangelicals want to see pro-Palestinian activism crushed, and Trump is happy to oblige if it means securing their votes and financial support.

This is not a principled stand against Jew-hate. It is a political strategy that instrumentalizes Jews to score points against perceived enemies. And history teaches us what happens when Jews become a tool rather than a people.

Trump’s Antisemitic Tropes and Public Statements

Despite his strong pro-Israel policies, Trump has repeatedly used antisemitic language and tropes:

• In 2015, addressing a group of Jewish Republicans, Trump said: “You’re not going to support me because I don’t want your money. You want to control your politicians.”
• In 2019, he accused Jews who vote Democrat of “disloyalty,” invoking the age-old charge of dual loyalty — the dangerous lie that Jews cannot be trusted as full citizens.
• In 2022, he warned American Jews to “get their act together” and appreciate what they have in Israel — “before it’s too late.” The tone was not supportive. It was threatening.

These are not minor missteps. They are deeply rooted antisemitic ideas that have been used for centuries to marginalize, isolate, and target Jews for violence.

And yet, I am still met with silence — or worse, justification — from Jewish Trump supporters who insist that none of this matters because he was good for Israel.

Empowering Extremists and Embracing Jew-Haters

Beyond rhetoric, Trump has repeatedly aligned himself with individuals and movements that traffic in overt Jew-hate:

• He equivocated after the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, where chants of “Jews will not replace us” rang through the streets, saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”
• He dined with Kanye West (Ye) after Ye had gone on a spree of antisemitic tirades — and invited Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust-denying white supremacist, to the same table.
• He amplified QAnon and other far-right conspiracy theorists who push antisemitic narratives about global control, “replacement,” and the demonization of George Soros.

This is not accidental. Trump’s playbook has always been to accept praise from anyone who supports him — even if they hate Jews — and never condemn them unless forced.

Admiring Authoritarians — Past and Present

Trump’s admiration for authoritarian rulers is also cause for alarm:

• He’s praised Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán — both leaders who have presided over governments that tolerate or promote antisemitic conspiracies.
• Reports from former aides have claimed he once praised Adolf Hitler’s ability to command loyalty and control crowds — though he denies it, the pattern of admiration for dictators is clear.

History has shown what happens when Jews place trust in strongmen. When our loyalty is traded for temporary power, we are often discarded when it’s no longer politically convenient.

The Broader Risk to the Jewish People

The danger isn’t just in Trump’s words or associations. The real threat is the normalization of antisemitism, the collapse of democratic norms, and the erosion of the pluralism that has protected Jews in America for decades.

• In authoritarian systems, Jews do not thrive. We are scapegoated. We are hunted.
• White nationalism — emboldened under Trump — is inherently antisemitic. It targets Jews, immigrants, people of color, and anyone who doesn’t fit a narrow, Christianized definition of America.
• When Jews prioritize Israel to the exclusion of everything else — even democracy, rule of law, and civil rights — we play into the dual loyalty narrative. We isolate ourselves and lose essential allies.
• And when fellow Jews attack other Jews for warning about these dangers, we are not just divided. We are vulnerable.

Conclusion: A Bargain That Cannot Be Sustained

Yes, Donald Trump delivered policy victories for Israel. But they came at the cost of normalizing antisemitic rhetoric, empowering Jew-hating extremists, and undermining the democratic fabric of America.

Some Jews have embraced him anyway — out of fear, frustration, or a desperate need to believe that someone powerful is finally “on our side.”

But support that’s built on evangelical prophecy, authoritarianism, and hatred of the other is not real support. It is a bargain that cannot last — and one that has historically ended in tragedy.

As the son of Holocaust survivors, I will not stay silent. I will not be bullied into supporting Israel for the wrong reasons by those who confuse transactional politics with lasting security. I love Israel — deeply. But I also love truth. And I know that Jewish survival, whether in Israel or the diaspora, must never come at the cost of our values, our dignity, our memory, or our safety — especially in places like America, where democracy is our shield.

We’ve seen this before.

We should know better.