Donald Trump recently tweeted (another) controversial tweet. This time, it was in reference to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and this time, critics are calling his tweet anti-Semitic. The tweet in question hit social media on Saturday, and it featured criticism of Hillary Clinton and included a graphic with dollar bills and a six-pointed star. Many Donald Trump critics are calling it a Star of David, and a slap in the face of the Jewish community, reports CNN .
Donald Trump almost immediately removed the offensive tweet after public backlash. Now some research has uncovered the images so-called anti-Semitic origins. Donald Trump’s campaign has come out in their candidate’s defense, saying that the six-pointed star in the image below was a “reference to a sheriff’s star” and had nothing to do with the Jewish community.
Unfortunately for Trump, a little bit of media digging indicates that the very image he shared on Twitter (and then deleted) originally came from a conspiracy theorist fringe message board/website. It had been originally posted on the site just 10 days prior to Trump’s tweet, and the site is well-known for its anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi content.
The graphic @realDonaldTrump tweeted yesterday was first posted on an anti-Semitic forum: https://t.co/nlsH0ocvdV pic.twitter.com/RfEB7bKGFm
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) July 3, 2016
The discovery was first reported by Mic.com , which named the website that is very popular among white supremacists. The site had reportedly deleted the thread that featured the image used by Donald Trump , but it was tracked down by an archive site Wayback Machine, which was designed to allow internet users to search for archived content going back years.
The image, later posted to Twitter then deleted by Donald Trump or a member of the Trump campaign, was posted to the anti-Semitic website in response to a thread addressing Russian hackers getting into Clinton Foundation records pertaining to Donald Trump. The original image was posted from an anonymous account.
The image was identical to the one that Donald Trump’s Twitter account shared with the world, except that the Trump tweet included a Fox News poll addressing Hillary Clinton’s perceived corruption. Donald Trump (or a member of his campaign staff) deleted the original tweet, but not before replacing it with a new version in which the controversial six-pointed star was replaced with a circle.
Crooked Hillary — Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/PKQhYhMmIX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016
Trump’s Twitter followers were quick to criticize The Donald for what was perceived as an anti-Semitic tweet as well as for removing and replacing the original image. After all, if the original image was as innocent as his campaign claims, why would Donald Trump feel the need to remove it?
. @R3M3MB3R1963 @realDonaldTrump @S3nt13ntB31ng He got left image from White Supremacist site & tried to later cover it up. That’s the point.
— (((Tam))) Overeducated Deep State Antifa Warrior (@Tam_Resist) July 4, 2016
One critic even pointed out that Donald Trump’s quick fix was so sloppy that it still left tiny portions of the offensive, so-called anti-Semitic star image visible to viewers who were paying close enough attention.
. @realDonaldTrump such a racist, anti-Semetic, he didn’t bother to cover Star of David! #NeverTrump @S3nt13ntB31ng pic.twitter.com/V7t550QA47
— (((Tam))) Overeducated Deep State Antifa Warrior (@Tam_Resist) July 2, 2016
CNN reportedly contacted the Trump campaign to try to determine where Donald Trump’s campaign found the image it tweeted out and whether or not Donald Trump campaign staff members frequented the anti-Semitic, right-wing, neo-Nazi message board. Ed Brookover responded to the media outlet.
“There was never any intention of any anti-semitism. Not every six-sided star is a Star of David. We corrected this tweet and have moved on.”
Brookover also said that he “wasn’t sure” who had sent the tweet, that Donald Trump doesn’t plan on making an apology for the offensive tweet, but rather the campaign had tweeted out a “corrected image” and plans to “move on.”
“There’s no anti-semitism in Mr. Trump’s body, not one ounce, not one cell.”
Despite assurances from Donald Trump’s campaign that The Donald isn’t in the least bit anti-Semitic, this isn’t the first time Donald Trump has been accused of Antisemitism. Times of Israel reports that Donald Trump came under fire in 2013 regarding a tweet he made about Jon Stewart. In that tweet, The Donald assured the world that he is much smarter than Stewart while using his birth name in what some called a jab at Stewart’s Jewish heritage.
I promise you that I’m much smarter than Jonathan Leibowitz – I mean Jon Stewart @TheDailyShow . Who, by the way, is totally overrated.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 24, 2013
At the time of that incident, Trump was quickly called out by critics, too.
What do you think? Was Donald Trump’s recent tweet about Hillary Clinton anti-Semitic? Was the six-sided star a reference to the Star of David or truly supposed to be a sheriff’s star? Does it matter that the image used by Donald Trump originated on an anti-Semitic, right-wing conspiracy website?
[Image by Shutterstock]