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Why Jews Are Voting for Donald Trump

In a roundtable discussion, Jewish supporters of the former president talk about how Israel and antisemitism factor into their decisions, which other issues matter to them, and what they really think of their candidate

by
Abigail Pogrebin
October 28, 2024
The Minyan
Roundtables on the state of the American Jewish community, bringing together people from a shared demographic or background—everyday people with personal opinions, not experts who earn their salaries discussing these issues.
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Tablet Magazine

Tablet Magazine

How will Donald Trump fare among Jewish voters this November? While it’s true that American Jews have leaned Democratic for the past century—typically by more than a 2-to-1 margin, sometimes more than 3-to-1—it’s also true that this partisan gap has been narrower in recent elections than it was two or three decades ago. And Trump, specifically, has made rare inroads among Jewish voters, increasing his share of the Jewish vote to 30% in 2020 from 24% four years earlier.

Curiosity about both candidates, and how each is about to fare with Jewish voters, led us to this Minyan, part of our series of roundtable discussions with American Jews. We wanted to talk to Jews who are planning to vote for Trump in 2024 and ask them what they liked (and didn’t like) about him—as a politician and as a person. We also wanted to hear what his supporters think about his Democratic opponent, and how they believe each would handle the highest office in the land at a time when we are facing war in the Middle East and rising antisemitism at home, in addition to a host of domestic issues from immigration and abortion to crime and the economy. (We also put together a parallel Minyan discussion with Jews who are planning to vote for Kamala Harris; you can find that discussion here.)

We put out a call for participants on social media during the week of Sept. 4; we heard from 75 Trump supporters, and selected 12 from across the country—as well as American voters living in Israel—who seemed representative of that group. (Of the 75 respondents, only 45% were registered Republicans, for instance, and at least one-third voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Joe Biden in 2020, so those are perspectives you’ll find in our discussion.) The 12 who took part in our Oct. 15 discussion were mostly married, but also included single and widowed voters. Their self-described religious observance ranged from “just Jewish” to Orthodox, and everything in between.

A majority of participants—several of whom voted for Democrats in 2016 or 2020—conveyed real ambivalence about Trump as a person and described him with negative adjectives, but described Harris in equally negative terms. Overall, there was a consensus that issues around Israel, antisemitism, and in particular the aftermath of Oct. 7 weighed heavily in their decision to support Trump in November. Not everyone was enthusiastic about the vote they’re casting. But for these voters, the stakes feel different now—not just in terms of the American future, but the Jewish one.

The Participants

Their ages, where they live, and who they voted for in the last two presidential elections

Jennifer: 55, Missouri. Trump in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Steven: 73, Raleigh, North Carolina. Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Alanna: 36, Cleveland. Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Brent: 74, Florida. Trump in 2016, Trump in 2020.

Hannah: 30, north of Boston. Didn’t vote for president in 2016 (“I was eligible, but considered it a bit of a protest nonvote”), Biden in 2020.

Miriam: 20, Israel. Wasn’t old enough to vote in either election. “But I grew up in a very liberal household.”

Pia: 62, Sacramento, California. Didn’t vote for president in 2016 (“as a protest”), Biden in 2020.

Marianne: 42, Miami and New York. Trump in 2016, Trump in 2020.

Linda: 64, Israel. Trump in 2016, Trump in 2020, “even though I’m from a Democratic household.”

Justin: 35, Los Angeles. Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Isaac: 58, Brooklyn. Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Sophia: 44, outside of Philadelphia. Clinton in 2016, Biden in 2020.

Please raise your hand. How many of you feel pretty enthusiastic—as opposed to ambivalent—about voting for your candidate, Donald Trump? I see six of you: Brent, Marianne, Linda, Pia, Alanna, Sophia. For those of you who are not enthusiastic about your candidate, I’d love to hear you explain why you’re voting for him anyway.

Steven: There’s no alternative. It’s a binary decision. Kamala is a disaster, and I just pray that Trump brings in good people with him when he wins.

Justin: I am begrudgingly voting for Trump. I think he’s a terrible human, but I can’t vote for Kamala because I think she is a disaster for Israel. And I think we’re in a state in the world where we’re moving toward chaos and conflict, and she’s behind the power curve on that, wanting to basically hold a status quo that no longer exists. In a situation where we’re being tilted toward conflict and chaos, I would rather have someone a little unstable and a little unpredictable than someone whose mindset is not reflecting reality.

Isaac: I’m more than begrudgingly voting for Trump. I feel horrible about voting for Trump—his spirit of meanness. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg with him.

Hannah: For the last election, I felt like character was the most important thing in a leader, and we kept hearing that. In preparation for this conversation today, I wrote down my top issues, which I think Trump is far and away better for, one being geopolitics and safety in the Middle East, two being freedom of speech, three being immigration, and four being this broader DEI issue, which as a Jewish woman, I think that having that embedded in the ideology of the left—that Kamala has embraced—has been detrimental to Jewish students and youth around the country.

How many of you dislike both major candidates? I see seven hands raised—Justin, Isaac, Miriam, Jennifer, Steven, Brent, Alanna. Linda, you’re gesturing that you feel in between.

I think he’s a terrible human, but I can’t vote for Kamala because I think she is a disaster for Israel.

Jennifer: I don’t think that Trump is a very likable person. I’ve justified my vote in my brain a little bit by saying, “Do I have to like them as a person if I appreciate some of the policies that they have?” My big issue with Kamala, not to be too disparaging, is that I don’t know that she says anything when she speaks. And I don’t really like her stance with Israel or Netanyahu and just Jews in general.

Linda: I’m not crazy about Trump’s character, but a few things are clear to me: He’s not an antisemite. The opposite. I think he does love Jews. He’s not a bigot. He loves everybody. Once upon a time he was a Democrat. He loves every kind of person under the rainbow. I don’t think he’s a great model, but I don’t need a model for a president. That’s not where I look for my righteous people. And I think Kamala Harris is empty and terrible for the Jews.

Miriam: Especially among people of my generation, people look a lot more to vibes and character traits, how they present themselves rather than policy and principles. I’m trying to look more at policy and things that they’ve done. Even while trying to do that, I don’t like Harris in particular. But again, if I’m trying to look at principles and policy rather than vibes and character traits, then Trump definitely takes the cake. Because I don’t like his character, I don’t like his traits, anything that he says, or the way that he speaks.

You said you “particularly” don’t like Harris; can you just give me a sentence on why?

Miriam: It’s not necessarily that I don’t like her; for all I know she could be a good person to talk to. But when she speaks, she makes it very clear that she doesn’t have any opinions, specifically on the Middle East and on geopolitics. I think she just says what her advisers tell her to.

Please raise your hand if Israel and Jewish issues are the main reason you’re voting for your candidate, Donald Trump? I see 10: Jennifer, Steven, Sophia, Miriam, Justin, Pia, Alanna, Brent, Marianne, and Linda.

Alanna: Oct. 7 was a watershed for me in terms of my politics, and it just seemed to me that it was so clear—good and evil, and that Israel not only should win, but needed to win against Hamas, Iran, and its proxies. It’s been so difficult for me to listen to anyone who can equivocate or be ambivalent about Israel not just defending itself, but winning the war. I’m supporting Trump because I think that he’s better for Israel, and I feel like if somebody can’t be good for Israel, how can they be good on anything else? If they’re not good for the Jews, if they’re not good for Israel, that touches on everything else.

I don’t think he’s a great model, but I don’t need a model for a president.

Pia: For me it’s personal because my mother survived Nazi Germany. She died five years ago right before the pandemic, February 2020. And for many months before she died, she had been telling me that she felt that the world was going toward what she had already seen happen. And I poo-poohed it, didn’t believe it. But now, in the five years since she died, I see it and I believe it. Some of it is wrapped up in what happened during the pandemic, that we had certain personal freedoms infringed upon, but it has spiraled. I also have a daughter who lived in Israel for nine years and served in the IDF. So I have an intimate view of Israel and an intimate love for it. Lastly, I will say that if there is no Israel, I think Western civilization in general is just doomed.

Marianne: I not only think that Trump is the better choice for Jews domestically and for Israel, but I also think so for some other important reasons. Israel and Jewish domestic issues are both the top voting issue, but it’s not just the only issue. If I thought he was bad in other ways, I would be much more conflicted.

Brent: Definitely the Israel issue is at the top of my list, but there’s a companion here, which is Iran. Iran is an existential threat to Israel, and maybe to Western civilization entirely. I cannot even comprehend the way the Biden and Harris administration has kowtowed to and appeased the Iranians, and I have no reason to believe that won’t continue in a Harris administration. I think that once the Iranians have nuclear capability, they’re going to hold it to our throats constantly.

Sophia: I flew to Israel to bear witness [to the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks] in February, and since then I just feel like there’s been a Democratic media bent that’s been very anti-Israel, very propagandized. Jews need agency—in the diaspora, in the United States. And I just feel like in a Harris administration, we don’t have that agency and it’s terrifying. So a lot of what I’m seeing—Jewish students at Harvard, they’re really being heard by our Republicans in Congress who care about the issue. Under a Trump presidency we had the Abraham Accords, we had peace. He moved the [American] embassy to Jerusalem. There are a lot of things that he did for Jews that people unfortunately don’t recognize enough. So I really just genuinely believe that in the Trump presidency we will see change.

I cannot even comprehend the way the Biden and Harris administration has kowtowed to and appeased the Iranians.

Could some of you tell me what you would consider a Jewish issue right now, aside from Israel, on which you’re basing your vote?

Hannah: I would say that a Jewish issue is the college campus, which I bucket into two things: one, the protests obviously. But I also think the broader DEI issues, which I think disproportionately can hurt Jews and lead to a lot of the underlying biases against Jews that certain individuals have.

Linda: I care about the Jews in America as much as I care about the Jews in Israel. And not only that, historically what’s good for the Jews is good for the nation and what’s bad for the Jews is bad for the nation and we see that in the 3,000-year history.

Isaac: I don’t particularly agree with the premise that President Trump is good for the Jews because I think he’s only good for himself. And when it works for him, then he’s good for the Jews. On issues like moving the embassy, I recall him making some statement that, oh, when we talk about a two-state solution, he wants to be the man that will do that and he may force Israel to make certain concessions that are detrimental to the Jews. So the notion that Trump is somehow this friend of the Jews I think is overrated.

Sophia: Immigration is a huge issue for me and the fact that the border has been such a mess under Harris, I just feel like that’s a red line for me. That definitely needs to be resolved.

I don’t particularly agree with the premise that President Trump is good for the Jews because I think he’s only good for himself.

Can you say more about how immigration is a Jewish issue for you?

Sophia: There’s probably thousands of terrorists on our watch list who have been let into our country. I feel like that’s definitely a Jewish issue.

Now I’d ask to hear about a non-Jewish issue that is important for you in this election.

Steven: The economy. My friend says Biden has made him stronger because it doesn’t take him as much effort to lift $100 worth of groceries anymore. It’s just frightening to see what’s happening here.

Brent: I would mention two: One is the overall status of our national defense, which I realize is a bipartisan problem. If we don’t have strong leadership in the presidency and elsewhere in government, our national defense is no longer a deterrent to us getting dragged into a war. My other comment would be taxation. The idea of taxing the rich, etc., will lead to bad economic outcomes.

Justin: I think both sides, left and right, agree that change needs to happen. They disagree on what that change is. But you don’t get change, good or bad, if you don’t stand for anything or if you don’t tell people what you stand for. Echoing what someone said earlier about Kamala just not standing for anything, she doesn’t stand for or tell anyone what she stands for. So she’s just going to be trying to hold on to a status quo or just go the way the winds push her.

Miriam: I am thinking a lot about immigration, even though that doesn’t really affect me directly. My mom was an illegal immigrant for pretty much her entire childhood. When she married my dad, she got a green card. So I am thinking about small places with so many immigrants coming in. I don’t want to bring up the animal-eating claims, but Springfield, Ohio, is a really small place, as opposed to places like New York. I think about how Springfield’s population is a tiny population and is affected by 15,000 immigrants coming in. That really affects people’s jobs and people’s livelihoods and day-to-day life. So illegal immigration to small places like that is a big concern.

My friend says Biden has made him stronger because it doesn’t take him as much effort to lift $100 worth of groceries anymore.

For those of you who were or are Democrats or independents, tell me why you’ve decided to vote for the Republican candidate this time?

Jennifer: The safety of the Jewish people, safety of Israel. The economy and the Middle East issues are all concerns for me.

Pia: I’ve actually been a registered Democrat since I was 18 years old and I’m 62. I reregistered as a Republican and I’ve already voted by mail for Trump and a host of other Republican candidates in California. I raised two kids with my former husband and we owned a small business and I’m just tired. I’m tired of not getting answers. I’m tired of being taxed. I’m tired of taking care of other people. I’m just tired and I want to hear somebody who tells me more of what I consider to be accurate information on a host of different issues.

When you just said you’re “tired of taking care of other people,” can you be a little more specific?

Pia: I mean tired of my taxes having to go to take care of people who’ve come into this country illegally. My mother came in legally and I think [the immigration problem] has eroded the American dream. It’s eroded the work ethic. It’s a falsehood that Americans won’t do certain jobs that we’ve relied on immigrants to do. I’m just tired of being fed that line of thinking, information and political bias, and I am changing it up now.

Isaac, I know you’re changing your party to vote for Trump.

Isaac: Yes, I am. Actually, there was an article in The New York Times about Trump’s record on the environment—that the administration actually had people down in Michigan with the whole water issue [in Flint, Michigan] and they were impressed with the Trump administration’s handling of that issue. It’s surprising to me that Trump doesn’t bring it up. He just seems to be rambling on about crowd sizes. The other thing Trump accomplished is prison reform. It’s something that is monumental and it helps thousands of people, whereas Kamala, when she was a prosecutor, she was a mean, vicious person and she put [thousands in jail for low-level crimes]—as Tulsi Gabbard said in their [2019] debate, and which she destroyed Kamala for.

I think both sides, left and right, agree that change needs to happen. They disagree on what that change is.

Alanna, I know you are making a party switch for this election.

Alanna: I’ve been so disappointed in how this administration has reacted to Iran and how Kamala in particular has reacted to what’s been going on in college campuses, saying that these people waving terrorist flags have the right emotional response or something like that. And to keep calling it free speech, when we know that they’re not standing up for all types of speech. That’s what’s pushed me toward Trump.

Sophia: I just feel like I woke up. The war, Oct. 7 brought a lot to light for me. It was the pandemic that woke up a lot of people. For me, it was the war. There are a handful of journalists who I can turn to for clarity: Douglas Murray, Haviv Rettig Gur from the Times of Israel. I feel like there’s some real true meaning behind what Trump is saying, clarity behind his policy. I don’t see that clarity from the Democrats at all. I see a nightmare from them.

To all of you: In a word or two, how would you describe the candidate you expect to vote for?

Hannah: Sufficient for the job I want him to do.

Pia: Strong and focused.

Steven: Mercurial. And God help us.

Miriam: Satisfactory but temperamental.

Jennifer: Obnoxious.

Marianne: Competent and annoying.

Justin: My last resort.

Linda: Focused, puts a strong face to the international community, gets good people in to advise.

Brent: Competent and also decisive.

Isaac: The lesser of two evils.

The war, Oct. 7 brought a lot to light for me. It was the pandemic that woke up a lot of people. For me, it was the war.

Sophia: Ambitious and headstrong.

Alanna: The right person for this time.

Now let’s just do the same exact speed and specificity for the other candidate. In a word or two, how would you describe Kamala Harris?

Brent: I think she’s a laughing hyena, for one thing. And I think she’s being controlled by others.

Justin: Disappointment and hollow.

Sarah: Ill-equipped puppet.

Pia: Word salad, not genuine.

Steven: Obama’s sock puppet.

Jennifer: Devoid of her own ideas.

Sophia: Low IQ. And I’m going to say puppet as well.

Isaac: A wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Alanna: Empty and hollow.

Marianne: Incompetent and a liar.

Miriam: Spineless and easily influenced.

Linda: Empty, weak, and a little bit scary.

Would your vote be different if Joe Biden were still the Democratic candidate?

His economy was better, he stopped regulations, too many regulations, his policy on the border was better. And the defense.

Miriam: Putting aside the fact that he obviously is in serious mental decline, we can at least look at his track record with Israel and say that it’s a little bit more satisfactory. I think I would still be critical of it, but I think I would consider him the lesser of two evils regarding the Middle East.

Justin: I heard somewhere there’s a difference between being able to do the job of president and the ability to run for the job of president. I don’t think Biden can run for the job of president anymore. There’s probably a question of whether he could do the job of president. But if you needed him to sit there with a strong understanding of the world and make the hard decisions, I think he is capable of making those hard decisions and holding the right people’s feet to the fire.

Isaac: Obviously Biden is in this mental decline that we can’t turn back, but I remember him since 1984 when he ran and he was always a good friend of Israel and he’s less volatile than Trump.

Do you believe your candidate is good for America?

Brent: Yes, I would just go back to the national defense issue. I think that’s critical and I think that Trump is committed to that.

Marianne: It’s not all or nothing. There’s obviously some bad things about Trump’s personality that I do think have a very deleterious effect on people in the country and that’s a bad thing. But his foreign policy and the risk of getting into World War III is very real. And culture issues, including DEI; Tablet once had a great article about the disappearing of Jews in places of leadership and in schools. These are things that we do need to actively combat in our country.

Linda: I think Trump is good for America also. His economy was better, he stopped regulations, too many regulations, his policy on the border was better. And the defense.

Antisemitism on Oct. 7 was a wake-up call for me to reevaluate the entire left’s policy on everything.

Raise your hands if you think that your candidate is good for Israel. I’m seeing everyone’s hand raised except for Isaac’s. OK, Isaac, you’re on the spot.

Isaac: I just think he’s scary. He’s not stable. He says the right thing, does the right thing, and his son-in-law is a Jewish person, but I’m just jittery of him. If he had an issue with Bibi, he would turn on him. He would turn on us. I have no question about that. If it served his purpose to win an election running against Israel, I think he ... I don’t know.

Some of you have touched on antisemitism. I just want to go a little bit deeper here. Obviously there’s been a very well-documented surge of antisemitism. How important is antisemitism to your vote?

Hannah: Antisemitism on Oct. 7 was a wake-up call for me to reevaluate the entire left’s policy on everything. A lot of what I had brought to my thinking on race relations in America, I completely rethought because of seeing all the antisemitism … When I was thinking about how I wanted to be treated as an individual, not to be treated in a particular way because I was Jewish, wanted to feel accepted. And seeing the justifications of the conversations around race, I was like, well, I don’t agree with that for Judaism, so why would I have then agreed with that on race or sex or gender or that type of thing?

Sophia: Jews in the United States have leaned into liberalism almost like it’s their religion. Conservative voices have been pushed out of liberal spaces, Reform Jewish spaces. When Reform Jews push this idea of unity, they have to understand that DEI isn’t working for Jews. Conservative thought needs to be worked back in. And honestly, a huge apology probably needs to be made to that sect of people [conservative thinkers] or group of people. I just feel like there needs to be a rethink of Jews in the United States, that liberalism isn’t our answer. It’s not the tikkun olam answer for Jews in the United States to go and always vote Democrat. We need to actually rethink and reassess Jewish values in the sense of who’s going to protect us in the United States, who’s going to give us that agency and who’s actually listening.

The world is on fire right now and we need to do something to contain it.

Linda: I’m also a little bit nervous about Trump in certain ways. We don’t know him. But as an Orthodox Jew myself, we know that there’s always been antisemitism, there might always be—because that’s part of who we are and we have to make our effort against it. Trump is the best effort against antisemitism.

Miriam: It’s really important to recognize that a lot of people are treating either the left or the right as the Jewish people’s savior. I really just don’t think that there is a savior; the only people who will ever unconditionally defend us is us. And that’s obviously why we have Israel. Specifically on antisemitism in America and on college campuses—I mean, that’s why I dropped out of college. I couldn’t handle it. I just couldn’t. And I think there’s a lack of recognition from the Democratic Party and from our administration; even Biden has barely talked about it. Whereas the Republican candidates running now have been meeting with people like Shabbos Kestenbaum and all these college campus voices left and right almost every week. It just seems very clear who cares more, at least about that specific kind of antisemitism.

The fact that Kamala is married to a Jew, Douglas Emhoff, who has been outspoken against antisemitism—does that give you any pause when it comes to your vote for Trump?

Jennifer: I appreciate what he’s done, and I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of Shabbat dinners at their home. And I ask myself, “How antisemitic could Kamala Harris possibly be?” But her track record, her not speaking up about the college campuses outweighs the fact that she’s married to a Jewish man.

Here’s the last question: If you explained this election to your grandchildren—current or future—what would you say?

I really do believe America is the greatest country in the world and I think that this is the fight to save it.

Brent: I would say that this is about the future of the world. It’s about the future of our country, and Israel especially. And the decisions we make today in choosing the people who lead us are going to have a very significant impact on how life is in the future.

Steven: My grandchildren are 5, 3, and almost a year old, and they live in Israel. They came to the U.S. for a couple of months—right after the war started. And I would tell them that this candidate is the best we have and we just had to make a choice.

Justin: Life is not black and white. Nothing is. There is nuance in everything. All you can do is choose based off of the highest risk or highest value at a given time.

Alanna: This is about stopping the fire from continuing to spread. The world is on fire right now and we need to do something to contain it.

Pia: I was raised to believe in “never again.” And it happened again. So we were put in a position where we had to make some life-changing decisions. And you don’t always get the best option. But you have to use history as your guide so that you don’t end up repeating history.

Linda: I would say that this is a very impactful election. And we hope that America merits to have good things happen to it, but ultimately it’s not in any human being’s hands. It’s in the hands of Hashem.

Isaac: I would say that I voted for Hillary in 2016 and and at that time I was afraid of Trump because of his volatility. But it turned out to be a pretty peaceful time, objectively speaking. We’re in much more uncertain times right now. Even with my fears about Trump, I would still put the country in his hands rather than Kamala’s.

Hannah: I would say on one hand it felt like everyone was choosing what they felt like was the lesser of two evils. But on the other hand, it is a great opportunity for people to vote for a candidate who they’ve had experience with—both of them in office. We’ve experienced life with Trump, we’ve experienced life with Kamala as VP. And I think however it turns out, it will be representative of whether people felt like their lives were better under one versus the other. That’s a pretty cool and special thing.

Jennifer: I would tell my future grandchildren that voting for Trump was a difficult decision, but we were in very challenging times, given Oct. 7. Even though this might be a risky decision, it seems like he’s the best candidate for the job at this particular moment.

Marianne: This election is about slowing or stopping the steady march toward borderless, lawless, genderless, disordered, anti-capitalist society, and away from individualism and free markets that have solved most of the world’s problems historically.

Sophia: I’d just tell my children that it’s a blessing to be able to have choice, and that I’m voting for the actual candidate who was chosen in the primary and not voting for somebody who wasn’t, who was just selected in the process. We have a choice to make democratic decisions in this country and we should continue to advocate for those choices.

Miriam: I would tell my grandchildren that this is really a fight to save the West and the Western world because America is the shining beacon that the rest of the world should strive to be like. I really do believe America is the greatest country in the world and I think that this is the fight to save it.

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of Stars of David and My Jewish Year. She moderates an interview series for JBS—Jewish Broadcasting Service called In the Spotlight.