President Donald Trump condemned the progressive “squad” Friday for their anti-Semitism and support of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The comments were made during the president’s speech at King Jesus International Ministry in Florida for the launch of the Evangelicals for Trump coalition.
“We will not rest until the horrible and vile ideology of anti-Semitism has been defeated and destroyed. For this reason, I recently signed an executive order to restrict federal funding to any college or university that spreads, supports, or promotes anti-Semitic prejudice in any form,” said Trump. “The support from the Christian community, the evangelical community has been incredible because my administration has also taken historic action to support and cherish our friend and ally, the state of Israel.”
He went on to call out Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13), and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY-14), three of four members of the “squad” and frequent targets of the president.
“Unfortunately, there is a growing left-wing movement that seeks to target and punish the state of Israel and its Jewish citizens,” Trump continued. “This includes the anti-Semitic BDS movement, or boycott, divestment, and sanctions. It’s a disaster and we have people in Congress—I don’t know where they come from. Five years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago, this was unthinkable what’s happening in Congress. But these people hate Israel, they hate Jewish people. I won’t name them. I won’t bring up the name of Omar, Tlaib, AOC—I won’t bring that name up. But where do these people come from?”
President Trump said his administration “strongly and forcefully condemns this dangerous campaign to inflict pain and turmoil on the state of Israel.”
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu barred Omar and Tlaib from entering the country in August because of their “suspected provocations and promotion of BDS.” A few hours before the announcement, President Trump wrote on Twitter that it would “show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep. Tlaib to visit.”
Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez all voted against a July bill that condemned the “global boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement targeting Israel.”
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
