Donald Trump faces backlash for comments on Black and Jewish voters

Former President Donald Trump is facing backlash after offering his opinions on why Jewish and Black voters largely favor Democratic political candidates.

During an interview with right-wing radio host Wayne Allyn Root on Monday, Trump argued that “any Jewish person” who votes for President Joe Biden “does not love Israel” and “should be spoken to.” He then suggested that most Black and Jewish voters choose Biden and other Democratic candidates because they have “a bad habit.”

“Any Jewish person who votes for Biden does not love Israel and frankly should be spoken to,” Trump told Root, who once described himself as a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity. “He is totally on the side of the Palestinians and frankly it’s incredible that, historically, Jewish people vote for Democrats.”

“Maybe its just a bad habit when you vote for a Democrat,” he added. “A lot of its habit. Jewish people, by habit, they vote for the Democrats. And Black people, by habit, vote for the Democrats.”

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee in this year’s presidential election, went on to tout his record of accomplishments for Black Americans during his time in the White House, claiming that “nobody’s done more” for the demographic than him since former President Abraham Lincoln.

The Biden campaign shared to X, formerly Twitter, a clip of Trump saying that Jewish Democrats need to be “spoken to” a short time later, claiming that “Trump appears to threaten Jewish Americans who vote against him.”

By Tuesday, Trump’s remarks had raised additional eyebrows and caused some critics of the former president to voice their opinions on X.

“Cringe alert,” wrote former NBC senior executive Mike Sington. “Trump is going to explain to you why ‘Jewish people’ and ‘Black people’ vote for Democrats.”

“He says blacks & Jews vote Democratic not for smart reasonable rational reasons but out of habit, no Don that’s your cult,” @gcHamblet wrote while sharing a Mediaite article on the remarks.

“Trump connected Jewish support for Democrats with that of ‘the Black people’ and decided both groups simply cast their votes for President Joe Biden and the Democrats ‘out of habit,” wrote @hateGOP.

“These groups actually vote for Democrats because they are the ones who pass laws to help them and most of America!” @wkrauss687 wrote. “Republicans don’t!”

“Wow, Trump does not stop insulting us, is amazing,” wrote @alexand65349161.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump’s office via email on Tuesday night.

Trump has previously faced repeated backlash for disparaging comments about Jewish voters who favor Democrats and his theory on why the number of Black voters who support him has recently increased.

In September, the former president called out “liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives” in a Truth Social post on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and the start of the faith’s High Holy Days.

Following a Conservative Black Federation event in South Carolina in February, Trump received backlash for suggesting that Black voters were increasingly backing him due to his four criminal indictments, insisting that Black Americans liked his mug shot in Fulton County, Georgia “more than anyone else.”

Last month, Trump said that “any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion” and “should be ashamed of themselves” during an interview with right-wing pundit Sebastian Gorka.

The White House called the remarks “vile and unhinged Antisemitic rhetoric” at the time, while Democratic U.S. Representative Becca Balint of Vermont, who is Jewish, dismissed Trump as “incredibly insecure” and argued that American Jews “can see through him” during a CNN interview.