Donald Trump, ever the opportunist, cynically declares war on antisemitism | Opinion
Robert Keith Packer, a Virginia man in his late 50s, is among the more than 1,500 Jan. 6 criminals pardoned by President Donald J. Trump.
Packer’s offense was not especially noteworthy: He pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building and was sentenced to 75 days in jail.
It was Packer’s attire that drew attention. On the day of the insurrection, he wore a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt emblazoned with a human skull on the front and the word “staff” on the back. Underneath the sweatshirt he wore a T-shirt that said “SS” — a reference to Adolf Hitler’s elite death squad.
Apparently, the white supremacism on display on Jan. 6 did not faze Donald Trump. On multiple occasions, he has referred to these criminals as “hostages” who were treated unfairly by the justice system. In his eyes, they are heroes.
Packer’s behavior was antisemetic as it gets, yet Trump pardoned him.
And now the same president is deporting students from college campuses that have been embroiled in pro-Palestinian protests. It simply doesn’t add up.
Trump: ‘Charlottesville was a little peanut’
Trump has a history of overlooking antisemitism when it suits his purposes.
Remember Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick for attorney general? He invited a Holocaust denier to a State of the Union speech.
Then there was Trump’s reaction to the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, march, where white supremacists shouted “Jews will not replace us.”
As recently as last year, Trump referred to that hate incident as “nothing” compared to the pro-Palestinian protests that followed Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“Charlottesville was a little peanut. ... The hate wasn’t the kind of hate that you have here,” he said.
An ugly, very public display of antisemitism was nothing more than “a little peanut.”
Yet when it comes to kicking students out of the country or threatening “woke” universities with the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding, Trump is all too willing to level accusations of antisemitism — whether they are warranted or not.
California students targeted
More than 100 international students and former students studying in California have had their visas canceled.
That includes 12 students from UC Davis and one current and two former students from Cal Poly. (Other campuses, including Sacramento State and Fresno State, were not giving out numbers.)
To protect students’ privacy, campus officials are not releasing their names, which means there is no way to know why their visas were revoked.
There are a number of reasons a student visa can be canceled: Dropping out of school or failing to take a full course load; being out of the country for an extended period; failing to file required paperwork; or committing a crime, no matter how minor.
At UCLA, the Daily Bruin reported that all the students who lost their visas had been previously arrested “for at least a criminal misdemeanor, ranging from ‘simple arrests with no convictions to full-blown court cases,’ including speeding tickets, missed court appearances, reckless driving and marijuana possession before legalization.”
Elsewhere, there have been reports that students were arrested after taking part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations opposing the war in Gaza, which the administration is equating with antisemitism — making them a national security risk.
What, exactly, is antisemitism?
According to the State Department, the U.S. uses the “working definition” of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” it begins, then goes on to cite examples like this one: “Calling for, aiding or justifying the killing or harming of Jews in the name of a radical ideology or an extremist view of religion.”
Another is “Denying the fact, scope, mechanisms (e.g. gas chambers) or intentionality of the genocide of the Jewish people.”
The definition does make an important distinction: “Criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
The Trump administration has conveniently decided to overlook that.
“Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Now the administration is going to extremes to find the “lunatics” by scouring social media accounts, and it’s getting help from groups that are using facial recognition technology to identify students who attended protests, ABC News reported.
Goodbye free speech
Case law clearly says noncitizens who are here legally have the right to free speech.
“Once an alien lawfully enters and resides in this country he becomes invested with the rights guaranteed by the Constitution to all people within our borders. Such rights include those protected by the First and Fifth Amendments and by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” the court ruled in 1945.
Yet the Trump administration is ignoring that as well.
Take the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who played a prominent role in Columbia University’s protests against Israel. He was arrested and threatened with deportation — even though he has permanent residency in the U.S. — for participating in “antisemitic protests and disruptive activities.”
In a memo, Rubio conceded that Khalil’s activities would be “otherwise lawful,” but they nevertheless “undermine U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”
Let’s think about that.
If students were to protest offshore oil drilling, could they be deported for undermining the Trump administration’s “drill baby drill” policy?
What about advocating for transgender rights?
Or against Teslas?
No matter what our political beliefs, this should give us all pause.
In this climate, our First Amendment rights are under threat.
As abhorrent as it is for someone to wear a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt, that’s constitutionally protected speech.
It would be far more abhorrent to sit back in silence and let a president take that away.
This story was originally published April 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Donald Trump, ever the opportunist, cynically declares war on antisemitism | Opinion."
