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racism
In Latest Racist Rant, Trump Says 'Something Should Be Done About' Minnesota's Black Attorney General
"It's gutter racism with real consequences," one critic said of Trump's rhetoric.
Mar 26, 2026
President Donald Trump went on a racist tirade on Thursday where he targeted both the Somali-American community and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
During a Cabinet meeting, the president once against lashed out at Minnesota residents of Somali descent, whom he said "come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world."
"They come to our country, low IQs, and they rob us blind," Trump said of the Somali-American community. "They rob us blind because we have crooked politicians and dirty cops."
The president then turned his attention specifically to Ellison, the Minnesota attorney general who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to a statewide office in the US when he won the race to represent Minnesota's 5th District in the US House of Representatives.
Trump: "In Minnesota, it's very Somalia-oriented. These people come from a crooked country, disgusting country, one of the worst countries in the world. They come to our country -- low IQs -- and they rob us blind. Stupid people, and they rob us blind." pic.twitter.com/2TRhf2gAMn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 26, 2026
"The attorney general's a dirty cop, that's my opinion," said Trump, who in 2024 was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. "And something should be done about him."
Ellison hit back at Trump in a social media post.
"If Donald Trump thinks Minnesotans will turn on our neighbors, he doesn’t understand this state," wrote Ellison. "When he surged ICE here and killed two Minnesotans, we stood up for each other, not against each other. Trump’s racist tirades can’t distract from the fact that his reckless and deeply unpopular war is driving up inflation, raising gas prices, and making life unaffordable for Minnesotans."
The Minnesota attorney general added that "while Trump desperately protects the Epstein class and pardons outrageous fraudsters, I’ve been prosecuting and convicting them."
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, slammed Trump for his "outright bigotry against an entire ethnic minority," which he said "continues to stain this country."
Reichlin-Melnick also referenced a recent New York Times report about a lawsuit alleging that the US Department of Justice has been expediting Somalis' immigration cases and denying them fair hearings.
"It’s gutter racism with real consequences," said Reichlin-Melnick of Trump's rhetoric. "The government itself has been ordered to target this minority group for special disfavor."
Trump drew criticism in December when he described Somali immigrants as "garbage."
“I don’t want them in our country, I’ll be honest with you,” Trump said. “Their country’s no good for a reason. Their country stinks, and we don’t want them in our country. I can say that about other countries too... We’re going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country."
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Labeling All Criticism of Israel as Antisemitism Is Dangerous and Wrong
Weaponizing antisemitism on behalf of Israel does not protect Jewish people. It only makes them more vulnerable to future violence—for their sake, and the sake of Palestinians, Iranians and other victims of Israel’s violence, it must stop.
Mar 22, 2026
On March 17, Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center and pro-Trump ally, resigned from his position in protest of the war in Iran. In his resignation letter, he remarked, “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”
Kent is not alone here. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters, “We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, we knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces, and we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) remarked that ”[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu just a few weeks ago said he’d been waiting 40 years for an American president to join him in attacking Iran. And in Donald Trump, he finally found somebody stupid enough and reckless enough to actually do it.”
Now, it is worth noting that this is one of several conflicting reasons that have been provided to justify this war. Yet, that is precisely why these allegations should be taken seriously and investigated. As it stands, the US and Israel have launched an illegal, unprovoked war that is indiscriminately killing civilians, including children, while wrecking the global economy. We must know why.
Despite this, these allegations against Israel have been criticized as antisemitic. Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt condemned those who blamed “the Jews” for inciting this war. “It is a sad irony,” Greenblatt said, “that an operation against the world’s largest sponsor of antisemitism has prompted so much antisemitism.” Zack Beauchamp, writing for Vox, accused Kent of engaging in “antisemitic conspiracism.” He wrote, “Antiwar antisemitism is still antisemitism.”
Conflating criticism of Israel with genuine bigotry only makes it more difficult to assess and address this serious problem.
These responses represent a continuing and troubling trend of conflating criticisms of Israel (and the Israeli government more specifically) with antisemitism.
Let us be clear: Not all criticisms of Israel are rooted in antisemitism. Likewise, not all criticisms of Iran are Islamophobic. The same holds true for individuals: It is not inherently antisemitic to criticize Benjamin Netanyahu.
What matters is the underlying rationale. Are we judging the person or nation based on the actions they have taken, the thoughts they have expressed, or the policies they have implemented? Or are stereotypes, prejudices, and ignorance fueling those claims? Are the accusations of Israel provoking this war based on the best available evidence or antisemitic hallucinations of a “secret Jewish cabal” plotting world domination?
Parsing through these questions requires careful assessment. If the allegations against Israel are grounded in hatred, then we must hold the people spreading those lies accountable. Antisemitism can never be tolerated.
If, however, they are supported by hard evidence, then a commitment to justice, morality, and humanity requires we hold Israel accountable. The same standard applies to all nations and world leaders, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or any other characteristic. No one is beyond reproach.
Greenblatt argues that referring to Israel as an “apartheid state,” accusing it of committing a genocide, or starting the war with Iran contribute to the “most concentrated, most dangerous surge of antisemitism in living memory.” What Greenblatt fails to realize is the role of people like him in driving this surge. His rhetoric does not silence opposition. It does not contribute to productive dialogue and understanding. Rather, it creates the false perception that all of Israel’s actions reflect its Jewish identity; that Israel speaks for and represents all Jewish people. That only someone who hates “the Jew” would ever find fault in Israel’s actions. That antisemitism is the only reason why someone would support Palestinians and advocate for their sovereignty.
We must remember that antisemitism and racism, like all forms of prejudice, are acts of depersonalization and dehumanization. The antisemite treats all Jewish people as a homogenous group—they all share the same thoughts, have the same aspirations, engage in the same acts. Here, the diversity of thoughts and opinions is denied. For the bigot, everything the Jewish person does is not a reflection of them as a person, but rather of their “Jewishness.” This flawed logic paves the way for the antisemite to hold all Jewish people accountable for the words and deeds of a few. When people like Greenblatt indiscriminately label any criticism of Israel as antisemitic, he follows this same logic: He treats Israel not as a sovereign nation whose actions reflect its own internal decision-making but as “the Jewish state” whose actions are inseparable from its Jewish identity. It reduces all discussion of Israel to its ethnicity and religion—that is, itself, antisemitic.
Jewish people are neither collectively responsible for Israel’s actions nor do they universally support them. For instance, two prominent Israeli rights groups—B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel—have accused Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza. Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist advocacy group, has protested against the US government’s unfettered support for Israel. According to a October 2025 Washington Post poll, 61% of American Jews say Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, with 39% saying it is committing a genocide. None of this is antisemitism.
The reality is that according to both the Gaza Health Ministry and an Israeli security official over 70,000 Gazans have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct 7, 2023. The reality is that Israeli officials have repeatedly implied or outright expressed genocidal intent. In 2024, Netanyahu said in a news conference, “In any future arrangement… Israel needs security control over all territory west of the Jordan.” In 2025, he said: "We are going to fulfil our promise that there will be no Palestinian state. This place belongs to us." More pointedly, Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Nissim Vaturi said, we must “wipe Gaza off the face of the Earth,” while adding “Gaza must be burned.” Those killings happened, those words were said—we must reckon with this reality, not cast it aside as an antisemitic conspiracy.
None of this is to deny that antisemitism is on the rise worldwide. However, conflating criticism of Israel with genuine bigotry only makes it more difficult to assess and address this serious problem. It dilutes the moral weight of accusations of antisemitism and distracts us from the harm suffered by its victims. Ultimately, we cannot seek justice for one group while denying it for another. We must stand with Palestinians who have been terrorized by Israel’s military assaults, as well as the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting, Temple Israel synagogue attack, and other acts of violence. A moral double standard cannot be tolerated.
And yes, it is the case that some anti-Israel critics, like Nick Fuentes, are antisemitic. Similarly, some disparagements of African, Asian, and Latin American countries are racist; and some attacks against Middle Eastern countries are Islamophobic. This possibility, however, does not mean we should treat every criticism as being singularly and inherently hateful. Rather, it must caution us to be more careful and critical with the words we use.
Weaponizing antisemitism on behalf of Israel does not protect Jewish people. It only makes them more vulnerable to future violence—for their sake, and for the sake of Palestinians, Iranians, and other victims of Israel’s violence, it must stop.
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The Correct Solution to Antisemitism Is to Call for BDS Against Israel
Ending the notion that all Jews are responsible for and agree with what Israel is doing are necessary to deal with this horrific form of racism.
Mar 22, 2026
There’s been much debate on the left around the world about how best to respond to what appears to be rising antisemitism. What, if anything, is the best response? Some argue, mostly correctly, that raising the subject amidst Israel’s genocide in Gaza, bombing many of its neighbors etc. is an attempt to deflect attention away from that country’s crimes.
However, in so far as there has been a rise in one form of racism, let me suggest one solution:
An effective way for governments around the world to halt the rise in antisemitism would be to apply BDS principles towards Israel. Boycotting, divesting, and sanctioning would last until either a two-state solution was arrived at with Palestinians or all the people living on the land Israel currently occupies were given equal rights and opportunities.
Based on experience with the South African apartheid state, BDS could pressure Israel to end its military-might-makes-right, international law ignoring, colonial, racist, anti-human behavior. That is by far the major source of increasing antisemitism today. This should not be a controversial statement, but it is for those who remain supporters of Israel despite that country becoming a pariah in most of the world. Some people, for religious, political, or pro-U.S. empire reasons justify ongoing ethnic cleansing, apartheid policies, the destruction of Gaza, mass killing of children and women, expansion of illegal settlements and repeated bombings of neighboring countries. They either agree with or excuse Netanyahu’s extreme right, Jewish supremacist government that believes in expansion of a state imposed on the people of southwest Asia by western powers. They attack anyone who criticizes Israel and call them antisemites. They conflate Judaism with the interests of the Israeli state.
These should not be controversial statements. Israel’s current behavior and its conflation of Judaism with that country’s actions is by far the biggest reason for a rise in antisemitism in the last few years. Therefore, ending that behavior and the notion that all Jews are responsible for and agree with what Israel is doing are necessary to deal with this form of racism.
The most effective and quickest way to accomplish these essential tasks is a widespread and complete BDS campaign by most countries in the world. The goals would be to force Israel’s respect for international law and end what the largest Israeli human rights organization calls “a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. But instead, most western countries support Israel, empowering and excusing its bad behavior which emboldens existing antisemites and creates more. In other words, supporting and emboldening antisemitism rather than trying to end its current most damaging cause. It seems like those western governments and the pro-Israel organizations that pressure them to continue this madness are fine with the resulting increase in antisemitism. Why? One answer might be to push longstanding Jewish communities around the world to emigrate to Israel. Certainly, the notion of Aliyah is something promoted by Zionism.
But all of us, including millions of Jews, who oppose religious/ethnic nationalism and support progressive secular democracy as the best way to overcome all forms of racism, including antisemitism, must say no to Israel’s horrible behavior and quickly end it. The best non-violent way to do that is supporting BDS.
Massive economic, political and cultural pressures are needed to change Israel’s behavior. The same is true to change the behavior of supporters of Israel in many western countries who enable that bad behavior. For example, in Canada, government subsidies and give tax breaks to Zionist organizations that use this funding to attack anyone who criticizes Israel. More importantly they push the mistakenly dangerous notion that Israel is the state of all Jews, thus convincing people that all Jews are responsible for Israel’s behavior. Rather than give money to organizations that claim to be fighting antisemitism but instead use those funds to defend and promote the interests of a foreign state whose actions are a significant cause of antisemitism, governments must get to the root of the problem. They must engage in real action to stop Israel’s bad behavior. They must end support for organizations that promote the conflation of Judaism with that behavior.
It’s time for the political left and all those who believe in human rights for all to call for BDS as a way to combat antisemitism.
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