One year after Hamas terrorists stormed into southern Israel, murdered approximately 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, Donald Trump gathered with Jewish leaders, Holocaust survivors and supporters at his Trump National Doral resort in Florida.
The occasion was supposed to commemorate the victims of October 7.
There was a candle-lighting ceremony.
Speakers remembered those who had been murdered.
Families were still waiting for hostages to return home.
Israel remained at war.
And then Trump turned the anniversary into an American political argument.
“The anti-Jewish hatred has returned even here in America,” Trump told the audience, blaming its resurgence particularly on Democrats.
Then he went further.
Trump declared that antisemitism was “not in the Republican Party.”
“The Republican Party has not been infected by this horrible disease,” he said.
It was an extraordinary claim — not simply because antisemitism exists across ideological and political boundaries, but because Trump's own record made such an absolute declaration particularly difficult to reconcile with reality.
A Memorial Becomes a Campaign Event
The evening began solemnly.
Holocaust survivors participated in a candle-lighting ceremony. Jewish leaders and elected officials spoke about the victims of the Hamas attack and the hostages still held in Gaza.
Trump described October 7 as one of history's darkest days and recounted horrific details of the attack.
But politics quickly entered the speech.
Trump told the audience that the November presidential election would have enormous consequences not only for the United States but for Israel.
He argued that the relationship between the United States and Israel would become stronger if he returned to the White House.
And he blamed America's political leadership for the rise in antisemitism following October 7.
Then Trump singled out Democrats.
According to Trump, antisemitism had infected one American political party — but somehow spared his own.
That sweeping claim ignored documented examples of antisemitism on the American right and controversies involving people Trump himself had associated with.
Trump Had Recently Blamed Jewish Voters
The contradiction was particularly striking because of something Trump had said only weeks earlier.
At events focused on antisemitism and Jewish voters in September, Trump complained about the percentage of Jewish Americans supporting Democrats.
“If I don't win this election,” Trump said, “the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that if that happens.”
He complained that a majority of Jewish voters appeared prepared to support his Democratic opponent.
At another point, Trump said Jewish Americans supporting Democrats should have their “head examined.”
Those remarks drew criticism because blaming Jewish people collectively for a political outcome echoes a longstanding antisemitic idea: that Jews should be treated as a single political bloc whose loyalty can be questioned when they do not support a particular leader or cause.
Trump nevertheless continued making the argument.
He repeatedly expressed frustration that his policies toward Israel had not translated into greater political support from American Jews.
American Jews Are Americans
Trump has also repeatedly spoken about American Jews and Israel in ways critics say invoke another historic antisemitic trope: dual loyalty.
American Jews are American citizens.
Israel is a separate country.
Supporting Israel, criticizing Israel, supporting its government or opposing its government does not determine an American Jew's loyalty to the United States.
Yet Trump has repeatedly spoken about Jewish Americans as though their political choices should be determined by what he had done for Israel.
He has complained that American Jews were insufficiently appreciative of him.
He has questioned why Jewish Americans vote for Democrats.
And during the 2024 campaign, he increasingly suggested that Jewish voters themselves could bear responsibility for the consequences if he lost.
That history made his October 7 declaration that antisemitism existed within the Democratic Party but not the Republican Party especially contentious.
The Nick Fuentes Dinner
There was another episode Trump did not mention.
In November 2022, Trump hosted rapper Ye — formerly known as Kanye West — for dinner at Mar-a-Lago.
Ye arrived with Nick Fuentes.
Fuentes is a white nationalist who has made openly antisemitic statements and denied the Holocaust.
Trump later said he did not know who Fuentes was before the dinner.
That did not erase the controversy.
A former president and declared presidential candidate had hosted one of America's most notorious antisemitic extremists at his home.
The episode generated condemnation from Democrats and Republicans.
Yet less than two years later, Trump stood before an October 7 memorial audience and declared that the Republican Party simply had not been “infected” by antisemitism.
Antisemitism Isn't Confined to One Party
There were legitimate reasons for concern about antisemitism in the United States following October 7.
Jewish students reported harassment and intimidation on college campuses.
Antisemitic incidents increased.
Some demonstrations against Israel included rhetoric that Jewish organizations and civil-rights groups condemned as antisemitic.
Debates over Israel's military campaign in Gaza frequently became entangled with arguments about antisemitism, Zionism, Palestinian rights and American foreign policy.
Some Democratic politicians faced intense criticism over statements involving Israel.
Those issues deserved serious examination.
President Joe Biden himself repeatedly condemned antisemitism after October 7.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — the highest-ranking Jewish elected official in American history — delivered a lengthy Senate speech warning about the rise of antisemitism.
Antisemitism was real.
But treating it as a disease belonging exclusively to the opposing political party transformed a serious social problem into a partisan weapon.
Trump Attacks Chuck Schumer
Trump's rhetoric toward Schumer provided another example.
Schumer is Jewish.
Yet Trump had accused him of becoming a “proud member of Hamas” because Schumer criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and called for new elections in Israel.
Schumer's criticism of Netanyahu did not make him a member of Hamas.
It represented a political disagreement over the Israeli government's leadership and conduct of the war.
Conflating criticism of Netanyahu with support for Hamas blurred the distinction between the Israeli government, the state of Israel and Jewish people themselves.
It also demonstrated the problem with Trump's claim that his political opponents represented antisemitism while his own rhetoric was somehow immune from scrutiny.
October 7 Was Not About Donald Trump
The first anniversary of October 7 carried enormous emotional weight.
Families were mourning.
Hostages remained in captivity.
Israelis were still living with the trauma of the attack.
Palestinians in Gaza had endured enormous death and destruction during the war that followed.
The Middle East was moving deeper into conflict involving Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
There was plenty to discuss without turning the anniversary into an American campaign rally.
Trump nevertheless repeatedly brought the presidential election into his remarks.
He told the audience that November 5 would be extraordinarily consequential for Israel.
He argued that October 7 would not have happened had he been president.
And he portrayed himself and the Republican Party as uniquely capable of protecting Jewish people.
These were political claims delivered during an event commemorating murdered civilians.
The Contrast With Biden
President Biden also marked the anniversary.
His statement remembered the people murdered on October 7, condemned Hamas, reiterated American support for Israel's security and called for the remaining hostages to be returned.
Biden also condemned the rise in antisemitism.
But he did not claim that antisemitism belonged exclusively to Republicans.
The difference illustrated two ways political leaders could approach the anniversary.
One could condemn antisemitism as an American problem.
Or it could be used as another weapon against the opposing party.
Trump chose the latter.
A Convenient Definition of Antisemitism
Trump's October 7 argument effectively created a convenient political definition.
When Democrats engaged in rhetoric he considered hostile toward Israel, Trump described it as evidence that their party had been infected with antisemitism.
When Trump questioned the judgment of Jewish Democrats, suggested Jewish voters might be responsible for his potential election defeat, attacked America's highest-ranking Jewish elected official as aligned with Hamas or hosted an antisemitic extremist at his home, those episodes somehow did not alter his conclusion.
Antisemitism, according to the argument Trump presented that evening, existed over there.
Among his opponents.
Not within his own movement.
Not within his own party.
And certainly not in anything he had said or done.
The Problem With Turning Hatred Into a Partisan Weapon
Antisemitism has existed for centuries.
It existed long before America's Democratic and Republican parties assumed their modern forms.
It has appeared on the political left.
It has appeared on the political right.
It has appeared in religious extremism, racial nationalism, conspiracy movements and authoritarian political movements.
Combating it requires recognizing it even when it comes from one's own political allies.
That was precisely what made Trump's October 7 declaration so remarkable.
He was asking Americans to view antisemitism through a partisan filter.
The opposing party was infected.
His party was clean.
His opponents were the problem.
His own history was irrelevant.
A Solemn Anniversary Becomes About Politics
October 7, 2024 should primarily have been about the people who died one year earlier.
About the hostages.
About survivors.
About grieving families.
About confronting antisemitism wherever it appeared.
Trump did speak about those victims.
He condemned Hamas.
He expressed support for Israel.
Those portions of his speech reflected the solemn purpose of the gathering.
But he also used the anniversary to attack Democrats and promote his presidential campaign.
And when Trump declared that antisemitism simply wasn't present in the Republican Party, his own documented history complicated the claim.
Only weeks earlier, he had suggested Jewish voters could bear substantial responsibility if he lost the presidential election.
Two years earlier, he had hosted Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago.
He had repeatedly questioned why American Jews supported Democrats and attacked Jewish political opponents over their positions on Israel.
Those facts do not prove that every criticism Trump made of Democrats was invalid.
They demonstrate something more fundamental.
Antisemitism cannot credibly be confronted by pretending it exists only among one's political enemies.
And a memorial for the victims of October 7 was an especially consequential place to make that claim.