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, let’s revisit the anti-Semitic attacks against journalist Julia Ioffe, who profiled Melania Trump last month for GQ, for which she traveled to Slovenia, Melania’s birthplace. Ioffe wrote about the former model’s father, Victor Knavs, and reported the fact that she has a half-brother. Melania Trump criticized the article on Facebook, calling it “dishonest” and “disingenuous.”

After the piece was published, Ioffe, who is Jewish, began tweeting about the various vile, anti-Semitic messages—phone calls, emails, and tweets—she was receiving. Some of them used Holocaust imagery; one of them called her a “Filthy Russian Kike”; one phone call was from an anonymous person who played a Hitler speech, another was from “Overnight Caskets.”

Apparently, these disgusting messages have prompted Ioffe to file a police report, according to The Washington Post‘s Erik Wemple.

The alleged offense is listed as “threat to kidnap or injure a person,” as outlined under the Code of the District of Columbia 22-1810. Said threats came through phone calls and email, notes the report, which was filed on April 29. And the “public narrative” section reads as follows: “C-1 states that an unknown person sent her a caricature of a person being shot in the back of the head by another, among other harassing calls and disturbing emails depicting violent scenarios.”

This should serve as a reminder that Trump’s supporters—often operating from the vile reaches of the Internet—can cause real damage.

“The irony of this is that today, when I was getting all of this horrible antisemitic shit that I’ve only ever seen in Russia, I was reminded that 26 years ago today my family came to the US from Russia. We left Russia because we were fleeing antisemitism,” Ioffe told The Guardian. “It’s been a rude shock for everyone.”

Related: Trump Watch [Tablet series]





Jonathan Zalman, a staff editor, runs The Scroll, Tablet's news blog.

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