WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump, in remarks about antisemitism on Thursday that centered around his past support for Israel, decried what he called a Democratic “hold or curse” on Jewish voters and promised that, if he is elected, he would purge the “toxic poison of antisemitism” from spreading. 

Seeking to sway Jewish voters — a group that historically backs Democrats — Trump said he thinks Israel would “cease to exist” under a Harris-Walz administration, but promised that he would “make Israel great again” and be a “defender” of Jewish Americans. 

“Tonight, we’re two weeks away from the one-year anniversary of the worst attack of the Jewish people since the Holocaust, without question, on October 7, which would have never happened if I was president,” Trump said during a “Fighting Antisemitism in America” event at a hotel in Washington, D.C. In the year since the massacre, Jewish citizens have been forced to endure “the worst outbreak of antisemitism in many generations,” he said. 

“Despite presiding over this explosion of antisemitism, Kamala Harris has done absolutely nothing, she has not lifted a single finger to protect you or to protect your children, or to even protect you with words,” he said. “I’m here today to tell the Jewish American community that this ugly tide of antisemitic, pro-Hamas bigotry, hate will be turned back and crushed starting at noon on January 20, 2025.” 

Prominent Jewish donors, Jewish American students, and an array of lawmakers — including Representative Elise Stefanik and Senators Scott of Florida and Cruz — attended the event, which was the first of back-to-back speeches on Thursday night targeting Jewish voters. Trump was introduced by a physician and megadonor, Dr. Miriam Adelson, at the first of the two speeches.

“This is a president who keeps his promises,” she said in her opening remarks, citing his recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Deal, and recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

“All of us Jews must vote for him, it is our sacred duty in gratitude for everything he has done, and trust in everything he will yet do,” she told the audience.

During his remarks, Trump repeatedly promised Jewish Americans that with their vote, he would be the “best president ever” for Jewish people, and even at one point joked that he was so popular in Israel that he could run for prime minister. 

“My promise to Jewish Americans is this, with your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House,” he said. He promised that if he’s elected, he would in his first week back in office “inform every college president that if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation.”

Trump also said he’d inform every educational institution that “if they permit violence, harassment, or threats against Jewish students, the schools will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights law.” He later promised to “defeat inflation,” cut down energy costs, end taxes on tips, and deport “foreign jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters.”

Trump called on Vice President Harris to disavow “the support of all Hamas sympathizers,” but said that “she won’t do it.”

“I have to say this, and it hurts me to say it, you’re going to still vote for Democrats,” he told the primarily Jewish audience, as he lamented at length his low polling numbers among Jewish voters. Recent polling commissioned by the Jewish Democratic Council of America indicates that Ms. Harris is leading Trump by 47 percentage points — 75 percent to 25 percent.

Trump repeatedly referred to current polling that put him at 40 percent approval among Jewish voters — it wasn’t immediately clear which poll he was referring to — but he said he should be polling at “100 percent.”

“It doesn’t make sense. I say all the time that any Jewish person that votes for her [Ms. Harris], especially now, her or the Democrat Party, should have their head examined,” he said.

It’s not the first time that Trump has called out Jewish voters for their voting habits. Earlier this year, he faced national backlash for proclaiming that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion, they hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed.”

Jewish voters — identified by Pew Research polling as among the “most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S. population” — were generally not favorable to Trump in the 2020 election, as the Sun has reported, with nearly 75 percent of Jewish voters disapproving of him. 

A representative of Ms. Harris did not immediately respond to a request from the Sun for comment about Trump’s remarks.