Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups condemned President Trump for calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) a “Palestinian,” arguing he used it as a slur against the long-time lawmaker.
During a meeting at the White House with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, Trump hammered Democratic Party lawmakers for the response to his March 6 speech to a joint session of Congress. He then went after Schumer, who previously served the Senate majority leader and was the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in the country at the time.
“Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said on Wednesday. “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.”
The comments about the New York lawmaker immediately drew condemnations from both Muslim and Jewish civil rights groups.
Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement that Trump’s “use of the term ‘Palestinian’ as a racial slur is offensive and beneath the dignity of his office” and called on the president to apologize to Palestinians and Americans.
“It is the continuing dehumanization of the Palestinian people that has resulted in horrific hate crimes against Palestinian-Americans, the U.S.-enabled genocide in Gaza, and decades of denial of Palestinian human rights by successive presidential administrations,” Awad said on Wednesday.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a group that works to combat antisemitism, said the president “has many powers, but none of them include deciding who is and isn’t Jewish.”
“Doing so, and using ‘Palestinian’ as a slur, are both beneath any @POTUS. Instead of weaponizing people’s identity, use the power of the bully pulpit to bring the American people together,” the group wrote on Wednesday.
Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, said that Trump doesn’t “get to decide who is Jewish” and emphasized that “’Palestinian’ should not be used as an insult.”
“These comments are abhorrent but revealing of why the vast majority of Jewish voters have not and will never support Donald Trump,” Soifer wrote Wednesday in a post on the social platform X. “Since taking office, he’s elevated antisemitic conspiracy theorists & attacked our democracy. His rhetoric, agenda, and alignment with right-wing extremists are endangering American Jews.”
Trump has gone after Schumer with similar rhetoric before, slamming him for his criticism of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
“They don’t have the backing. Even Schumer, he’s become like a Palestinian. Chuck Schumer. Jewish. Always strong for Israel. He’s become like a Palestinian,” Trump said in early June last year.
Schumer is the author of a new book titled “Antisemitism in America: A Warning” that’s slated to come out next week.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.
