Donald Trump has been condemned by a leading US Muslim civil rights group for seeking to use the word “Palestinian” as an insult when he attacked the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, as “not Jewish any more”.
“President Trump’s use of the term ‘Palestinian’ as a racial slur is offensive and beneath the dignity of his office,” said Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or Cair.
“He should apologize to the Palestinian and American people. It is the continuing dehumanization of the Palestinian people that has resulted in horrific hate crimes against Palestinian-Americans, the US-enabled genocide in Gaza, and decades of denial of Palestinian human rights by successive presidential administrations.”
Trump sought to insult Schumer while speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, while sitting with the Irish taoiseach, Micheál Martin.
“Schumer is a Palestinian,” Trump said, amid rambling and incoherent remarks about Democrats in Congress, the war in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Hamas and a looming government shutdown, which Democrats can avoid if enough of their senators vote with Republicans who hold the chamber, putting Schumer in a difficult political position.
“As far as I’m concerned, he’s become a Palestinian,” Trump said. “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish any more. He’s a Palestinian.”
Trump has abused Schumer in such terms before, calling him a Palestinian and “a proud member of Hamas”. The president has also regularly questioned why Jewish Americans would vote for Democrats, even amid growing concern about antisemitism among his own aides, advisers and followers.
On Wednesday, Schumer did not immediately comment.
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), said: “Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide who is Jewish. Senator Schumer is the country’s highest ranking Jewish American official, and ‘Palestinian’ should not be used as an insult.”
She added: These comments are abhorrent but revealing, and it’s time to call it like it is – Donald Trump is a depraved antisemite, Islamophobe and bigot, which is why the vast majority of Jewish voters have not and will never support him.”
Amy Spitalnick, the chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said: “Again, the goal for this administration isn’t to counter antisemitism or protect Israel. It’s to weaponize antisemitism to go after their political enemies, advance an extreme agenda, and undercut democracy – and it only makes Jews less safe.”
In the Oval Office, Martin was asked if as the leader of one of three European countries that recognizes the state of Palestine – the other two being Norway and Spain – he would “inform the president of your views on Gaza”.
“I don’t have to inform the president,” Martin said. “He is very well clued into the whole situation. We share the president’s unrelenting focus on peace.”
When the same reporter asked about Trump’s recent suggestion Palestinians should be forced to leave Gaza so the US can redevelop the land, Trump interjected, saying: “Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians” and mocking the reporter for being from Voice of America, a broadcast network run by the federal government.
