How Much Responsibility Does Trump Bear for the Synagogue Shooting in Pittsburgh?
Political rhetoric matters, and he’s had some unfortunate things to say about Jews
By Julia Ioffe
I n the hours after the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, President Donald Trump’s allies were at pains to point out that Robert Bowers, the alleged shooter, was in fact anti-Trump. Never mind that the Bowers disliked Trump because he felt he was too soft on “the k — — infestation,” he wrote online, using a slur for Jews. “Trump is a globalist, not a nationalist,” Bowers wrote on one of his social media accounts. But to the president’s defenders, this was a hopeful moment, one they could use to separate Trump from the carnage at Squirrel Hill. There was an important difference between “a shooter who hates Trump,” wrote conservative writer David French, and the man who loved Trump who sent Trump’s critics all those pipe bombs. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt pointed out that anti-Semitism “transcends the left/right divide.” In these defenders’ minds, this absolves Trump of any guilt.
It doesn’t.
Trump has had enough to say about the Jews that his supporters may easily make certain pernicious inferences. During the campaign, he joked at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition…
