Comes now Donald Trump, defender of the Jewish people. By appealing or settling charges of antisemitism, he and his minions position themselves as dedicated public servants fighting to protect a besieged minority.
The latest esteemed institution to bend the knee was Northwestern University, which announced on Nov. 28 (Friday news drop) that it will pay $75 million to stop a Federal investigation that had halted $790 million in research dollars. The first part of the agreement with the government addresses “Student Conduct and Antisemitism” and lays out what the school must do to comply.
Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi took a victory lap, saying, “Today’s settlement marks another victory in the Trump Administration’s fight to ensure that American educational institutions protect Jewish students and put merit first.”
As former President George W. Bush eloquently put it, “There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
There are some Jews (and others) fooled by Trump and the Republicans who have made antisemitism on campus a big issue. It’s time to set them straight.
Before the Northwestern concession, the latest flare-up in this campaign came at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the university for failing as part of the Commission’s investigation of antisemitism to turn over information such as names of those who filed antisemitism complaints, a list of “all clubs, groups, organizations and recreation groups… related to the Jewish religion, faith, ancestry/National Origin,” lists of members of the Jewish groups on campus and a list of those employed in the campus Jewish Studies program.
According to the Times, Penn responded: “ We have cooperated extensively with the E.E.O.C., providing over 100 documents, totaling nearly 900 pages; however, we have not turned over to the government lists of Jewish employees, Jewish student employees and those associated with Jewish organizations, or their personal contact information.” University spokesman Matthew Grossman said, “Violating their privacy and trust is antithetical to ensuring Penn’s Jewish community feels protected and safe.”
As with every other attack on a university filed by the Trump Administration, insufficient defense of Jews and insufficient prevention of antisemitism is at the heart of the complaint.
In a settlement with Cornell earlier this month, a Justice Department statement said, “’The Trump Administration is actively dismantling the ability of elite universities to discriminate based on race or religion,’ said Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ‘The DOJ’s agreement with Cornell strengthens protections for students against antisemitism and all other forms of discrimination.’"
Let’s be clear. The attack on Penn, as well as the attacks and demands on Harvard, Cornell, the University of Virginia, and other universities, supposedly in the cause of fighting antisemitism on campus, is a fraud. Or, if you prefer Trump’s favorite term, a “hoax.”
Jews As Pawns
Any Jewish people who think Trump is out to protect them are sadly mistaken, regardless of how ardently they think antisemitism is a problem on campus. This is not to say there are no issues or challenges surrounding antisemitism on campus, as elsewhere. There clearly are. This is to say that Trumpers aren’t the champions some may think they are.
Jews are pawns in the larger Republican campaign against elite universities that started years ago. As the Guardian reported, “In 2021, JD Vance, then a candidate for Ohio senate, gave a provocative keynote address at the National Conservatism Conference. He was very clear: “If any of us wants to do the things we want to do … We have to honestly and aggressively attack the universities.”
For Prof. Pamela S. Nadell, author of the new book, “Antisemitism, An American Tradition,” Vance’s point wasn’t subtle: “Antisemitism became the pretext for going after higher education.”
Attacking insufficient response to antisemitism is only one of the array of issues Trumpers are using as part of the bigger campaign to discredit higher learning institutions.
On the surface, it may seem as if Trump and his allies are friends of the Jewish people. His public comments reflect it. In a Nov. 9 “60 Minutes” piece about medical research at Harvard being jeopardized by Trump in the name of protecting those of Jewish faith on campus, Trump said: “I think Harvard is a disgrace. What they did was a disgrace. They are obviously antisemitic.”
The reality of the role of antisemitism is quite different, as Trump’s battle to take billions of Federal grants away from Harvard demonstrates.
In the story, 60 Minutes quoted researcher Joan Brugge, whose funds were cut said:” It was just like a gut punch. My knees buckled and I had to sit down, because I-- I just never imagined that research focused on a disease like cancer would be canceled for a reason that was unrelated to the quality of the research, or the progress of the research, but this was across the board for issues relating to diversity and antisemitism at Harvard.”
We also have the benefit of an actual fact-finding trial at the District Court level; you know the type of proceeding that the U.S. Supreme Court frequently ignores. In her Sept. 3, 2025 opinion finding for Harvard’s challenge, Judge Allison D. Burroughs wrote, “a review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that Defendants used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”
She added: “The idea that fighting antisemitism is Defendants’ [Federal government] true aim is belied by the fact that the majority of the demands they are making of Harvard to restore its research funding are directed, on their face, at Harvard’s governance, staffing and hiring practices, and admissions policies—all of which have little to do with antisemitism and everything to do with Defendants’ power and political views.”
Many Jews see through the hoax, as a Washington Post poll indicates. Then again, most Jews are Democrats. That leaves Republican Jews and, crucially (and unpolled) non-Jews who might blame Jews for research or programs being wiped out as a means to protect Jews on campus. Republican Jews, however, are more concerned about antisemitism from the left than from MAGA world.
Weapon and Victim
Jews are both a weapon and a victim. Accusations of antisemitism are the cudgel being brought down on universities as the way to force changes. Jews as weapon. Because of how you treat the Jews, your research will be gutted.
At the same time, Jewish students and faculty found themselves attacked and discriminated against after the Oct. 7 because of how Israel conducted the war that started with the Hamas invasion of Israel on Oct. 7. Jews as victim.
The reality is that while Trump claims to be against antisemitism and yet displays antisemitic attitudes himself and tolerates it around him in his associates.
The original sin was Trump’s comment after the “Unite The Right” neo-Nazi rally and riot in Charlottesville in 2017 when demonstrators carrying their tiki torches chanted “Jews will not replace us.” Trump said, “you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."
He has also allowed that Hitler had “done some good things” while running Germany. He has also adopted Hitler’s rhetoric that immigrants have “poisoned the blood of our country.” He has consorted with Holocaust deniers like Nick Fuentes.
Here is one nice comprehensive rundown of the real record for Trump, and another for Republicans generally.
His whole ecosystem reeks of Nazi and antisemitic thought and gesture, like the time Elon Musk gave his Nazi salute when Trump was inaugurated the second time. Paul Ingrassia, Trump’s nominee for the crucial position of Office of Special Counsel had to withdraw after it was reported Ingrassia admitted he had “a Nazi streak” and had written racist text messages.
We know that reports of hate and bias crimes have increased since Trump came down the escalator. It’s not a coincidence. And we know that future Republican generations are following in Trump-influenced footsteps as Politico reported. The leaders of tomorrow joked about gas chambers and, for good measure, called Black people “watermelon people.”
Most recently, the U.S. Coast Guard, part of ICE Barbie Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, wanted to downgrade swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive.” The Coast Guard reversed course after the change was disclosed.
Commentator Jim Acosta summed it up that Trump has a “Nazi problem,” while the Times has an explainer about why Republicans are “fighting about Nazis.” Said scandal is hatemonger Tucker Carlson interviewing Fuentes, a white supremacist. Some Republicans defended Tucker, other said that Fuentes should have been out of bounds. There are resignations and recriminations galore in right-wing world. Carlson himself has been known to engage in antisemitic rhetoric.
There is enough real antisemitism around. There are those who are dedicated to fighting back. It’s crucial to know who the real enemy is and who is just trying to cause chaos while ensnaring innocent people.
Trump and his minions don’t care about antisemitism and don’t care about protecting Jewish people. For Trump, fighting antisemitism is just another hoax to add to his list.
