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Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust denier draws rare criticism from some of his Jewish allies
(JTA) — Two weeks after feting Donald Trump as America’s most pro-Israel president ever, the Zionist Organization of America had harsh words for the man who aspires to return to the White House.
“ZOA deplores the fact that President Trump had a friendly dinner with such vile antisemites,” ZOA said Sunday in a news release. “His dining with Jew-haters helps legitimize and mainstream antisemitism and must be condemned by everyone.”
The group was referring to Trump’s dinner last week with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West who came out as an antisemite in recent weeks, and Nick Fuentes, the right-wing provocateur and Holocaust denier. Trump hosted the pair at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, on Tuesday.
Reaction to the dinner was initially muted in the days before Thanksgiving, but over the long weekend, a host of figures denounced Trump for meeting with the two men, though some did so more strongly or explicitly than others. Among Jews, the criticism has come not only from Trump’s longtime detractors but from some of his biggest fans.
“To my friend Donald Trump, you are better than this,” David Friedman, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, said Friday on Twitter. “Even a social visit from an antisemite like Kanye West and human scum like Nick Fuentes is unacceptable.”
Friedman is rarely anything but effusive in praising Trump, whom he once said would join the “small cadre of Israeli heroes” for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights and exiting the Iran nuclear deal, among other measures. But on Friday, his tone was more pleading as he tweeted to Trump: “I urge you to throw those bums out, disavow them and relegate them to the dustbin of history where they belong.”
Trump for his part said in statements on his Truth Social social media site that he hoped to assist Ye, whom he described as “troubled,” and that he did not know who Fuentes was. (Ye said he had come to Mar-a-Lago to ask Trump to be his running mate in his own nascent campaign.)
“We got along great, he expressed no antisemitism and I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson,’” Trump said of Ye, referring to a Fox News opinion show hosted by Carlson, whose embrace of an antisemitic conspiracy theory has led the Anti-Defamation League to call for his removal. “Why wouldn’t I agree to meet? Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes.”
The response was reminiscent of Trump’s swatting-away of criticism after he told the Proud Boys, a far-right group whose founder had made antisemitic comments, to “stand back and stand by” during a presidential debate in 2020, in response to being asked to condemn white supremacists from the debate stage. He subsequently said he did not know who the Proud Boys were. (The group later rebranded as explicitly antisemitic.)
Trump’s contention that he did not know Fuentes raised eyebrows for some. Like the Proud Boys, Fuentes is part of the extremist fringe of the Republican Party that has made up part of Trump’s base. The founder of a white nationalist group called America First, he was a leading organizer of the “Stop the Steal” rallies organized by Trump supporters to try to overturn the election results showing that he lost in 2020; he was also present at the rally that Trump addressed preceding the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that aimed to derail the transition of power.
Fuentes, who routinely rails against Jews on his livestream, also attended the 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Trump famously said there were “very fine people on both sides” and more recently has grown close to far-right lawmakers in Trump’s party, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia and Rep. Paul Gosar in Arizona.
Nick Fuentes answers question during an interview with Agence France-Presse in Boston, May 9, 2016. (William Edwards/AFP via Getty Images)
But even those who took Trump at his word that he did not previously know Fuentes said that was little excuse for dining with him.
“A good way not to accidentally dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you don’t know is not to dine with a vile racist and anti-Semite you do know,” the Jewish right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro tweeted on Sunday. (Shapiro’s tweet kicked off a heated exchange with Ye, who recently returned to Twitter as the social media platform’s new owner, Elon Musk, restores many accounts that were suspended for violating the site’s old rules, including Trump’s.)
Reaction to the dinner kept Trump in the spotlight over the course of a holiday weekend, a double-edged sword for the first Republican to declare a 2024 presidential campaign. Trump’s rise was fueled by nonstop media coverage, including of seeming misdeeds that did not doom him with his supporters. Still, one Trump advisor told NBC News that the event was a “f—ing nightmare” for the campaign, which has gotten off to a rocky start.
Also condemning the meeting were Jewish organizations that have not hesitated to criticize Trump’s flirtation with extremists in the past, including the American Jewish Committee, the Reform movement of Judaism and the Anti-Defamation League.
The Biden White House also condemned the incident. “Bigotry, hate, and anti-Semitism have absolutely no place in America, including at Mar-a-Lago,” its statement said. ”Holocaust denial is repugnant and dangerous, and it must be forcefully condemned.” (Asked to comment on Trump saying he didn’t know Fuentes, Biden himself told a reporter, “You don’t want to hear what I think.”)
The White House’s statement did not name Trump, nor did statements from many Republicans, including the Republican Jewish Coalition, at whose annual conference Trump spoke last week. The group did not initiate a statement, but, in response to reporters’ queries, released one.
“We strongly condemn the virulent antisemitism of Kanye West and Nick Fuentes and call on all political leaders to reject their messages of hate and refuse to meet with them,” said the statement, first solicited by The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman. The RJC and its CEO, Matt Brooks, retweeted Haberman.
Why the RJC would not name Trump drew follow-up questions from reporters, including Haberman, as well as a barrage of criticism on social media.
Brooks, evidently stung, called such queries “dumb and short-sighted” on Sunday morning and said on Twitter by way of explanation, “We didn’t mention Trump in our RJC statement even though it’s obviously in response to his meeting because we wanted it to be a warning to ALL Republicans. Duh!”
White nationalist leader Nick Fuentes addresses his livestream audience on the day Roe v. Wade is struck down to attack Jews on the Supreme Court, June 24, 2022. (Screenshot)
Max Miller, a Jewish Republican just elected to Congress from Ohio, and a former wingman for Trump, also did not name Trump and instead appealed to Ye, who at least until recently had become cherished on the right as a Black Christian conservative, to make a course correction.
“Nick Fuentes is unquestionably an anti-Semite and a Holocaust denier. His brand of hate has no place in our public discourse,” Miller said on Twitter. Ye “doesn’t need to keep walking this path. Letting people like Nick Fuentes into his life is a mistake.”
Prominent Jewish Republicans not making statements included David Kustoff, a Tennessee Jewish Republican congressman; Jason Greenblatt, once a top Middle East adviser to Trump; and Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner, who were both top advisers to Trump when he was president. A spokesman for Kushner did not reply to a request for comment.
Lee Zeldin, the Jewish Republican New York congressman seen as having a future in the GOP leadership after performing more strongly than expected in a failed bid to be elected governor of a Democratic state, also did not issue a statement, and his spokesman did not reply to a request for comment. Zeldin has otherwise been outspoken on Jewish issues in Congress and co-chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Black-Jewish caucus.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is the only Black Republican in the Senate and who co-chairs its Black-Jewish caucus, also had not commented as of Sunday night. Scott is believed to be a 2024 presidential hopeful and
Other Republican leaders denounced extremism but did not call out Trump by name. Ronna McDaniel, the Republican National Committee chairwoman known for her closeness to the former president, like the RJC, replied only when asked by a reporter — in her case, from Bloomberg — and did not name Trump.
“As I had repeatedly said, white supremacy, neo-Nazism, hate speech, and bigotry are disgusting and do not have a home in the Republican Party,” McDaniel said.
Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned antisemitism — but without mentioning Trump, Fuentes, Ye or any of the forms of antisemitism they have expressed. Instead, Pompeo spoke of his own role in undermining the boycott Israel movement — a cause that none of the men who dined together has embraced.
“Anti-Semitism is a cancer. As Secretary, I fought to ban funding for anti-Semitic groups that pushed BDS,” Pompeo said on Twitter. “We stand with the Jewish people in the fight against the world’s oldest bigotry.”
Trump was the ghost in the Republican machine last weekend at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference in Las Vegas: the declared candidate who party leaders believe still commands the unswerving loyalty of at least a third of the base. With his capacity for lashing out at critics, taking on Trump directly is seen as a fool’s game by many in the party.
A handful of Republicans already known for their open criticism of Trump, including Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, did denounce him by name.
“This is just awful, unacceptable conduct from anyone, but most particularly from a former President and current candidate,” Christie tweeted on Friday.
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The post Trump’s dinner with a Holocaust denier draws rare criticism from some of his Jewish allies appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Years of Ignored Antisemitism Led to Terror in Australia — and the Media Helped Normalize It
Mourners carry the casket of 10-year-old Matilda the youngest victim of a mass shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach targeting an event for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on Sunday, at Chevra Kadisha Memorial Hall, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Hollie Adams
Years of hatred and antisemitism that was swept aside or outright denied led to one of the most horrific attacks on the Jewish people in Australia.
The warning signs were unmistakable more than two years ago: chants of “gas the Jews” outside the Sydney Opera House days after October 7; “Jew die” graffiti scrawled outside a Jewish school; a synagogue firebombed; and a Jewish community that made clear, again and again, that it did not feel safe or protected.
A terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community should not be what it takes for the world to pay attention to the undeniable rise in antisemitism.
And yet, even now, it appears that many are still unwilling to acknowledge the attack was antisemitic.
Despite the terrorists specifically aiming at the crowd gathered at the Hanukkah event, there was initial reluctance to name the Jewish community as the target.
Rather, the attack was framed in vague terms as part of a broader act of violence and a public safety issue in Australia. This reluctance to call out antisemitism is not incidental, but part of the pattern that allowed it to foster unchecked for so long.
As the news coverage on the attack continued, outlets slowly started to shift the story away from the victims of the attack and towards the terrorists who carried it out.
While understanding the motive and background has a place in responsible reporting, many outlets instead crossed a dangerous line by subtly humanizing the perpetrators while sidelining the Jewish victims.
1/
How terrorists who murder Jews are quietly humanized in media coverage.
Not through praise – but through framing, emphasis, and omission.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. pic.twitter.com/nOuZM0ni7V
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 16, 2025
One headline in Newsweek focused on the attacker’s relationship with his family, quoting that his mother considered him a “good boy.” But what his mother thought of him before the attack should not have been headline news — the fact that he took part in mass murdering people at a Hanukkah event should have.
The pain and trauma of the victims’ families and survivors deserved the center of the story, rather than emotional character references for the terrorist.
The Irish Times similarly stressed the terrorists had no criminal background, omitting their ISIS-inspired ideology and once again framing them as ordinary, well-meaning people.
2/
Let’s start with this headline from @Newsweek:
“Mom of Bondi terror attack suspect says he was a ‘good boy’”Pause on that.
This is not context. It’s emotional laundering – shifting attention from victims to the feelings of the terrorist’s family. pic.twitter.com/vquSod2nM3
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 16, 2025
The BBC likewise whitewashed the crimes of the terrorists by refusing to call them terrorists at all. Instead, they were described merely as “gunmen,” a term so sanitized that readers would have no idea from the headline that they carried out a deadly attack on Jews.
3/
Humanization also shows up in language choices.“Terrorists” become gunmen. “Murder” becomes an incident. A mass-casualty attack on Jews becomes something that “happened at Bondi Beach.”
This @bbc headline doesn’t even tell readers that people were killed. pic.twitter.com/wPelNy8Aov
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 16, 2025
Meanwhile, Sky News shifted the focus from the Jewish victims to warn that Muslims in Australia may feel unsafe. This creates a moral inversion that recasts the aftermath of an antisemitic terror attack as a story about the potential discomfort of an entirely different community.
This inversion completes a familiar pattern where Jewish victims disappear, antisemitism becomes abstract, and the media moves on without ever confronting the hatred that made the attack possible.
Jews are massacred in an Islamist terror attack.@SkyNews’ response: bring on an imam to warn that Muslims may now feel unsafe.
Victims erased.
Violence inverted.
Sympathy redirected away from the dead. pic.twitter.com/K78sZtWbuX— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) December 17, 2025
When explicit calls to murder Jews are dismissed as isolated incidents, when attacks on Jewish institutions are minimized, and when Jewish fear is treated as political exaggeration, violence becomes inevitable. A terrorist attack against Jews in Australia is the consequence of sustained denial, indifference, and moral failure. The minimization of antisemitic incidents and violence against the Jewish people in the media contributes to the vicious cycle.
Antisemitism does not begin with terror attacks. It begins when warning signs are ignored — and it will continue until institutions, leaders, and the media are willing to say clearly and unequivocally that Jews were targeted because they are Jews.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Palestinian Terrorist Was Killed Throwing Grenades; PA Said He Was ‘Young Boy’ ‘Delivering a Package’
Illustrative: Palestinian demonstrators call for an end to clashes between Palestinian security forces and militants in Jenin, in the West Bank, Dec. 16, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues its hypocrisy about terrorists who are killed trying to murder Jews.
The “successful” terrorists are coined heroic fighters, and the PA names schools, streets, and squares after them.
But if they are young terrorists and the PA wants the world to condemn Israel, they are repackaged as innocent victims.
Such was the case of 16-year-old Islamic Jihad terrorist Muhammad Iyad Abahreh, who was killed after throwing hand grenades at Israeli soldiers near Jenin.
Text on picture:
“Martyr Jihad fighter
Muhammad Iyad Abahreh
One of the Jihad fighters of the Al-Quds Brigades, Al-Yamun Brigade
Al-Quds Brigades – Military Media”
Islamic Jihad’s terror wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, openly lauded Abahreh as one of its fighters.
The group proudly described him as a “Jihad fighter,” declared that he died as a “Martyr,” and vowed to continue armed resistance:
Headline: “The Al-Quds Brigades accompany to his wedding Martyr Muhammad Abahreh from Jenin”
“The Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine’s military wing, accompanied to his wedding [i.e., a Martyr’s funeral is considered his wedding to the 72 Virgins in Paradise in Islam] Martyr Muhammad Iyad Abahreh …
In a statement on Sunday, [Dec. 14, 2025,] the brigades said that Abahreh is one of the Jihad fighters of the Al-Yamun Brigade and that he ascended to Heaven as a Martyr after he managed to engage with the occupation [i.e., Israeli] soldiers and threw several hand grenades at them during an invasion of the town of Silat Al-Harithiya yesterday evening, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.
The brigades emphasized that they will remain steadfast on the path of Jihad and resistance until liberation and return.”
[Safa, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 14, 2025]
Just one day later, the Palestinian Authority’s official daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, published a fabricated version of the attack.
The “Jihad fighter” became a “young boy,” the grenade attack was erased, Islamic Jihad was not mentioned, and Israeli soldiers were accused of killing him while he was “delivering a package.”
Abahreh was painted as a “loved, diligent, seeker of knowledge” whose “death as a Martyr halted his aspirations” to graduate high school and help his parents.
Headline: “Young Muhammad Abahreh”
“Al-Yamun and Silat Al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, were partners in grief two nights ago, Saturday, [Dec. 13, 2025]. The two neighboring towns mourned 16-year-old boy Muhammad Iyad Muhammad Abahreh, who ascended to Heaven in Silat Al-Harithiya, and the occupation seized his body…
Family sources told Al-Hayat Al-Jadida that young Abahreh is the eldest [child] in the family and that he was looking forward to finishing his experimental matriculation exams, but the occupation’s bullets changed the course of his dreams.
They noted that Muhammad was on his motorcycle on his way to deliver a package in nearby Silat Al-Harithiya, but the occupation soldiers shot him with six bullets and seized his body…
Al-Yamun High School Principal Radwan Freihat described the loss experienced by the school with Muhammad’s death … who was loved, diligent, and a seeker of knowledge. He said that his death as a Martyr halted his aspirations to earn a high [school graduation] certificate to help his parents.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 15, 2025]
The Palestinian Authority routinely rewrites terrorist attacks to demonize Israel and mislead international audiences and donors.
It did this just a month ago after terrorists from its own ruling party murdered Aharon Cohen and injured three others. The PA denies the October 7 atrocities. And it lies to world leaders about condemning terrorism and antisemitism.
Itamar Marcus is Palestinian Media Watch (PMW)’s Founder and Director. Ephraim D. Tepler is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch. A version of this article originally appeared at PMW.
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Foreign Press Correspondents Honored Terrorists, Awarded Al Jazeera Cash Grant
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
The Association and Club of Foreign Press Correspondents USA bestowed honors on some of America’s most distinguished journalists at its gala in Washington, D.C., including veteran NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell.
Yet the same organization also chose to bestow posthumous honors on individuals later exposed as active terrorists who had worked as “journalists” for Al Jazeera, the Qatari state broadcaster and a co-sponsor of the event.
The channel itself was even awarded the association’s so-called “press freedom grant.”
An elite American press organization is honoring Hamas terrorists. That’s according to an astonishing scoop by @HonestReporting’s @Gil_Hoffman on a December 4 gala held by the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in the U.S., the self-described “leading independent… pic.twitter.com/itH7gxX4W9
— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) December 8, 2025
According to a dinner attendee, the ceremony included a moment of silence for 10 Al Jazeera reporters and media workers killed in Gaza while “covering the Palestinian conflict with Israel,” with their photos displayed at a memorial table — a disturbing imitation of the empty hostage tables used to honor Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
During the event, Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst used his acceptance speech to eulogize Gazan reporters. He criticized Israel for restricting independent journalistic access to Gaza, while omitting a crucial fact: Hamas routinely threatens, censors, and kills journalists, while selectively protecting cooperative reporters who comply with its messaging.
Yingst praised the “fearless and tenacious Palestinian journalists in Gaza who don’t have the luxury to leave when reporting becomes too dangerous,” adding after applause: “May we not forget their sacrifice and contributions to our industry.”
Since these “contributions” went unnamed, they deserve documenting.
Western press have eaten up Al Jazeera *cough* Hamas propaganda over Anas al-Sharif’s elimination by the IDF.
Here’s a
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 12, 2025
By memorializing known terror operatives and rewarding a propaganda outlet, the Association and Club of Foreign Press Correspondents USA transformed what should have been a celebration of journalistic integrity into a moral failure.
This was not an act of solidarity with journalism — it was the elevation of militants masquerading as reporters.
The author is the Executive Director of HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.