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Why I (Still) Can’t Vote for Donald Trump

No past accomplishment can make up for Trump's moral unraveling, and he must be held to account.
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December 1, 2022
Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives on stage to speak during an event at his Mar-a-Lago home on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Six years ago I wrote an article for the Journal, “Why I Can’t Vote for Donald Trump.”  I wrote:

Trump’s outrageous statements and behavior are well worn by now: his disparagement of one ethnic group after the other; his making fun of the disabled; his admiration for Vladimir Putin; his belittling of one person after the other, from Sen. John McCain to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly to former governor and presidential candidate Jeb Bush and on and on … As a Jew and the son of a Holocaust survivor, what scares me about Trump is his treatment of people as groups, using negative stereotypes to stir up the emotions of uneducated and disaffected people, and appealing to the worst instincts of people. He disparages minorities before he says he loves some of them. For now, it’s Mexicans, Muslims, the Chinese. Jews, after all, are the ultimate minority.

Nothing has changed, except that now, it’s the Jews’ turn. 

Recently, Trump dined at Mar-a-Lago with the antisemite who now calls himself “Ye” and the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes who has compared Holocaust victims like my grandparents to cookies. I hope Trump enjoyed his cookies with Fuentes. Has Jared Kushner spoken out? No. Shame on you, Jared.

David Friedman, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel, made a statement condemning the meeting and telling Trump, “You are better than this.” But there is no evidence that Trump is in fact better than this. Ask Michael Cohen or any of the people he fired on a whim or the women he allegedly abused and silenced with payoffs and non-disclosure agreements. Or ask the creditors who were put out of business with his bankruptcies. 

Yes, President Trump did some good things, among them his “Warp Speed” campaign for a COVID vaccine, protecting our borders and achieving energy independence. He also moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, which was promised by every president since the law was passed by both houses of Congress in 1995, but to Trump’s credit, he did it. He and Kushner negotiated the Abraham Accords, which was great not only for Israel but also for the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and the region. Egypt and Jordan are no longer isolated in the Arab world. It was a historic diplomatic achievement to advance the cause of peace.

But no past accomplishment can make up for Trump’s moral unraveling, and he must be held to account. A close friend who’s high up in Republican circles denounced the infamous Mar-a-Lago dinner, but not the man, in a carefully crafted statement. This is akin to denouncing the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. Let’s just say it: Donald Trump is not a good man. He shouldn’t have had these men to dinner. He says he didn’t know who Fuentes is but he certainly knew who Ye is and should have been aware of his recent antisemitic rants. 

Too many Jews are seduced by an invitation to a White House Hanukkah party or an Ambassadorship or another purple book appointment. For full disclosure, I took my son once to a Trump Hanukkah party, and while we had a good time, the star of the show was Trump’s ego. He barely mentioned Hanukkah, appearing on stage with his family and a few of his diehard fans. Trump held up a proclamation he had signed. The event was mostly about him. But that is peanuts compared to his endless list of transgressions.

Among many other sins, Trump prevaricated about Charlottesville; he told the Proud Boys to stand by; and as Liz Cheney says about January 6, he “summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack [on the seat of our government].”

Yes, President Trump did some good things… But it’s time for Republicans to nominate and support candidates for whom decency and civil behavior are not foreign ideas.

I’m still a Republican, but it’s time we stand up to Trump. It’s time for Republicans to aim higher and not settle. It’s time to nominate and support candidates for whom decency and civil behavior are not foreign ideas. That change, which is long overdue, would be good for the Jews and make America decent again.


Joel Geiderman is on the Board of Directors of the Republican Jewish Coalition and former Vice Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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