Why Trump Is Making Anti-Semitic Rants at Josh Shapiro

The Republicans have been using left-wing demonstrations against Israel as a lever to frighten American Jews into voting Republican. The widely anticipated protests at the Democratic National Convention have mainly fizzled out, despite breathless attempts to hype them on the right. It is the backdrop of that frustration that likely inspired Donald Trump to lash out at Josh Shapiro.

In a tenuously hinged social-media post, Trump called Shapiro the “highly overrated Jewish Governor of the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” complaining that Shapiro “refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had,” and that “Shapiro has done nothing for Israel, and never will.”

Let us briefly unpack.

“Overrated” is Trump’s go-to insult when his target is so obviously popular that he can’t get away with calling them unpopular. “Jewish Governor” is a strange description for an elected official whose job is simply “governor.” Nobody has ever described Trump as a former Gentile President.

Even stranger is Trump’s decision to respond to Shapiro’s speech by complaining that Shapiro declined to thank him for being great for Israel. Shapiro’s speech was not about Israel. It did not mention Israel, the Middle East, foreign affairs, Judaism, or Jewish identity.

It would be perfectly fine for Shapiro to speak about those subjects. But he is the governor of Pennsylvania, not the “Jewish Governor of Pennsylvania.” He is allowed to discuss subjects other than his Jewish identity or Israel.

Trump genuinely seems to believe the role of American Jews is to be primarily loyal to Israel and secondarily loyal to himself. He is unable to understand how Jewish people can hold a range of viewpoints on the Middle East and combine those beliefs with interests in other subjects.

He has gotten so carried away with resentment at Shapiro’s ingratitude in this capacity that he’s forgotten the Republican line is supposed to be that Shapiro is such a fantastically obvious choice for vice-president that his failure to be nominated can only be explained by antisemitism. Instead he now finds himself attacking Shapiro as an overrated failure who has done nothing for Israel, which Trump seems to believe is his job as Jewish Governor.