Trump Says He ‘Totally Disavows’ David Duke’s Anti-Semitic Drivel

Welcome back to #TrumpWatch, where Tablet presents the daily low-lights of Donald Trump’s attempt to use the dark forces of bigotry to become President of the United States. Today, as, sadly, we’ve done before, let’s turn our attention to Dr. David Duke, PhD., a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard whose website churns out anti-Semitic articles about ‘Zionist Oligarchs’ and videos called ‘Why the Jewish Elite Hate Donald Trump‘—what fun!

Duke is—you guessed it—a Trump supporter. Trump, it seems, is Duke’s “white knight.” So when The Donald won the Indiana primary this week, forcing Ted Cruz and John Kasich to drop out of the Republican race, Duke applauded the victory on his radio show this week. Duke—who was once awarded an honorary degree from a “university of hate”—saw Trump’s triumph as a win against the “Jewish extremists” who he believes control the Federal Reserve Bank, the U.S. government, the media, and the other presidential wannabes.

“Jewish chutzpah knows no bounds,” Duke said in the six-minute audio rant, as first reported by Right Wing Watch. “(T)hese Jewish supremacists who control our country are the real problem, and the reason why America is not great.” And Duke went on, reported JTA:

Duke said Jewish bankers are out to destroy America. He also slammed Cruz, a Texas senator, for taking money from a “Jewish leftist commie,” billionaire James Simons, who also gave millions of dollars to the campaign of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Duke endorsed Trump on his radio show in February, and Trump waited far too long to publicly disavow him and the KKK. In response to Duke’s latest comments, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement on Thursday in which its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says, “The onus is now on Donald Trump to make unequivocally clear he rejects those sentiments and that there is no room for Duke and anti-Semitism in his campaign and in society. Mr. Trump can and should speak up now. If not, his silence will speak volumes.”

Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, didn’t shy away this time, stating that he “totally disavows” Duke’s words, adding in a statement: “Antisemitism has no place our society, which needs to be united, not divided.”

But Trump says a lot of things. And then says the opposite of those things. And the opposite of those. This is nothing new in the internet-trolling, whistle-blowing fanfare that is the 2016 elections. Sad!

Yes, actually, it is.

Related: Trump Watch