Trump Says 'Sometimes It's The Reverse' On Jewish Attacks And People Are Livid
President Donald Trump reportedly just made a completely baffling statement on antisemitism, and no one knows what to make of it.
While speaking with Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro about the recent rise in antisemitism across the US, which has included Jewish cemeteries getting vandalized and Jewish community centers receiving bomb threats, Trump allegedly said,
[Trump] just said, 'Sometimes it's the reverse, to make people—or to make others—look bad,' and he used the word 'reverse' I would say two or three times in his comments. He did say at the top that it was reprehensible.
Shapiro added that Trump's remarks "didn't make a whole lot of sense to me."
He's not alone.
People are struggling to understand what "sometimes it's the reverse" means in relation to antisemitism.
Some seem to think Trump is suggesting the Jewish community is somehow responsible for the recent hate crimes it's been subjected to.
People seem to agree this is one of Trump's most "WTF?" moments yet, and that's saying something.
The Anti-Defamation League has called on the White House to clarify Trump's remarks "immediately."
Antisemitism is a very real problem in the US.
FBI data shows Jews are targeted more than any other group when it comes to religiously motivated hate crimes.
In 2015 alone, for example, of the 1,402 victims of anti-religious hate crimes, 52.1 percent were victims of crimes motivated by their offenders' anti-Jewish bias.
No other group was targeted more. To put this into perspective, Muslims were targetted the second most, and they constituted 21.9 percent of all the victims of anti-religious hate crimes.
President Trump has done very little to decry hate crimes in the US, while constantly demonizing undocumented immigrants and Muslim refugees.
His remarks today add to his questionable record when it comes to condemning discrimination in the US.
The White House has yet to comment or elaborate on this matter.
Citations: Trump says 'sometimes it's the reverse' when asked about anti-Semitic incidents: report (The Hill)
