J.D. attacked Abdul ferociously for his alleged antisemitism during a speech in Michigan yesterday. In an appearance in front of a group of Jewish donors, however, he skillfully used a straw man argument to address concerns about his ties to right-wing podcasters with debatably antisemitic views. Instead of talking about Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, he assured the group that Joe Rogan was not an antisemite and that he wasn’t close to the more extreme Nick Fuentes, who frequently attacks him and his wife. That was an evasion of the question, but it appears to have satisfied most of his audience.
The fact is that both Trump and J.D. believe that right-wing antisemites are an essential part of the Trump coalition and will do everything possible to keep them on board. Trump made this clear to the world after Charlottesville in 2021; J.D. is a lot more slippery, but his stance is the same.