As college campuses are targeted, some are warning that the Trump administration's efforts are helping reinforce antisemitic tropes.
President Donald Trump's administration recently stripped Columbia University of hundreds of millions in federal funding, in a blatant act of authoritarianism that Trump and his allies dubiously say is necessary to stem antisemitism. The university sheepishly acquiesced to virtually all of the administration's demands in an effort to restart talks to unfreeze that money.
I recently wrote about the absurdity of the MAGA movement lobbing claims of antisemitism precisely as some of the most prominent conservative influencers are praising Nazi apologists and even defending Adolf Hitler himself.
The Trump administration has given a range of rationales -- from diversity-related policies to the recognition of trans people in collegiate athletics -- as it targets American universities, which JD Vance once branded "the enemy." Beyond that, the White House has used allegations of antisemitism to pursue deportation of foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Amid all of this, I've been interested in hearing Jewish voices speaking on the administration's apparent use of Jewish people and their pain to carry out its illiberal goals -- and the concerns they have about the White House's actions helping fuel antisemitism.
Jason Stanley, a philosophy professor who recently decided to leave Yale to go teach in Canada, recently explained on PBS' "Amanpour & Company" why he thinks the Trump administration's efforts are actually boosting antisemitic tropes:
Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, a progressive think tank, agreed.
"This is exactly right and I have no doubt that it is how the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans feel -- we are being exploited in an attack on democracy, rights and the rule of law," Williams wrote on X.
This concern isn't confined to Jewish leftists. In fact, conservative writer Nick Cohen essentially warned about what we're seeing now back in December. In an article for The Jewish Chronicle headlined "American Jews, beware of being used by Trump," he wrote:
Furthermore, Kenneth Stern, the director of Bard College's Center for the Study of Hate and a lead drafter of the working definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, recently told NPR that the Trump administration's campus crackdown risks scapegoating Jewish students as well.
"It puts pro-Israel Jewish students in a situation where they may be seen as trying to suppress speech rather than answer it," Stern said.
As NPR noted, the administration has adopted Stern's definition of antisemitism in its executive orders -- but he says the definition is being distorted and weaponized.
These concerns, about purported allyship being used in ways that ultimately may undermine Jews, mirror what some Asian Americans expressed as conservatives were using their communities to argue against -- and do away with -- race-conscious admissions on college campuses.
Needless to say, members of more than one marginalized group have shown wariness about the MAGA movement claiming to act on their behalf. And they have ample reason to feel that way.