Much can be said about Donald Trump, America’s former and future president, but it cannot be said that he excludes Jews from his inner circle. And with his public comments indicating he will be more committed than ever to Israel’s security and the safety of American Jews, Trump appears to be stacking his advisors with both familiar and fresh Jewish voices who will shape the president-elect’s relationship with the Jewish community at home and abroad.
Stephen Miller
As Trump’s new deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller – who served as one of the more hawkish advisors during Trump’s first term – is expected to home in on the hardline immigration policies he championed during his previous stint in the White House.
Miller, 39, helped shape some of Trump’s most controversial actions on immigration, including a travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries and a policy to separate the children of undocumented migrants from their parents at the border.
In 2018 Miller’s uncle David Glosser accused him of being an “immigration hypocrite” for supporting policies that would have targeted his own Jewish family if they had been enacted a century ago.
“In the span of some 80 years and five decades, this family emerged from poverty in a hostile country to become a prosperous, educated clan of merchants, scholars, professionals, and, most important, American citizens,” Glosser, a longtime volunteer with the Jewish-run refugee agency HIAS, wrote in Politico, describing how Miller’s great-great-grandfather Wolf-Leib Glosser fled the Belarusian shtetl of Antopol and arrived in the US in 1903 “with $8 to his name.”
That same year, 17 Jewish groups called for Miller to be fired over his immigration policies, accusing him of “extreme viewpoints and advocacy of racist policies”.
Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump
Trump’s oldest daughter Ivanka, who was raised Christian but converted to Orthodox Judaism to marry Jewish businessman Jared Kushner in 2009, has been notably absent from much of her father’s 2024 campaign. Unlike Trump’s previous bids for president, during which Ivanka was front and centre at rallies and national conventions, she and her husband have taken a step back to support Trump “outside the political arena,” as Ivanka announced two years ago.
Speaking to The New York Times on behalf of his wife earlier this month, Kushner said Ivanka “made the decision when she left Washington that she was closing that chapter of her life. And she’s been remarkably consistent.”
But as one of her father’s former top aides alongside Kushner, who served as a senior adviser in the Trump White House, involved in the Abraham accords, and now runs a multi-billion dollar private equity fund bankrolled by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, some speculate that the couple’s influence – particularly Kushner’s – will continue through his next presidency, especially with regards to the administration’s Middle East efforts.
“No one on the incoming team has what Jared has, and that is trust,” a regional diplomat who worked with Kushner during Trump’s first presidency told CNN. “Jared earned it, he didn’t have it at the beginning. He earned it. That takes time to build.”
David M. Friedman. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
David Friedman
Bankruptcy lawyer-turned ambassador to Israel during Trump’s first term, David Friedman had no foreign policy experience prior to his appointment to the role in 2017.
As ambassador to Israel, Friedman played a significant part in negotiating the Abraham Accords and moving the US embassy to Jerusalem. But his appointment was marked by controversy, with numerous individuals and advocacy groups – including Palestinians, American Jews and Israelis – arguing that Friedman’s hardline views on annexing the West Bank settlements would lead to extremism and a breakdown of the peace process.
According to CNN, Friedman has said that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not illegal and supports Israel’s annexation of portions of the West Bank. While this vision was not implemented during Trump’s first term, many believe that with the incoming administration, Israel will have the freedom to pursue it – and Friedman will be there to help see it through.
Listed by The Jerusalem Post as one of the world’s 50 most influential Jews in 2019, Friedman has continued to hold sway over Trump’s Middle East policies and is expected to continue playing a leading role in the new administration’s Israel policy despite the role of ambassador to Israel being earmarked for Mike Huckabee.
Steve Witkoff. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP) (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Steve Witkoff
Trump’s choice for Special Envoy to the Middle East has been a longtime ally. Real estate investor Steve Witkoff, 67, spoke during the Republican National Convention about his “close friend” Trump who supported him after the death of his 22-year-old son Andrew from an opioid overdose in 2011. He has been a friend of the former president since the 1980s, when they met through a real estate gig.
Witkoff has no experience in politics, much like Jason Greenblatt who held the title during Trump’s first term.
“Steve has made every project and community he has been involved with stronger and more prosperous. Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE,” Trump wrote in his announcement of Witkoff’s nomination for the role.
Will Scharf. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images)
Will Scharf
Trump selected one of his personal attorneys, Will Scharf, to hold the position of White House staff secretary, placing him in charge of managing the flow of information to the president and the circulation of material among senior staff.
Scharf, 38, played a key role as part of Trump’s legal team in the federal criminal case tied to the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
Previously a senior advisor to former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens, Scharf last year co-founded “Jews Against Soros,” a conservative group combating the “nefarious” agenda of the liberal billionaire and Holocaust survivor George Soros and rejecting the notion that criticising him is antisemitic.
Raised in an Orthodox Jewish household, Scharf told Jewish Insider that he lays tefillin every day and attends Shabbat services at Chabad.
Marc Rowan. (Photo by Peter PARKS / AFP) (Photo by PETER PARKS/AFP via Getty Images)
Marc Rowan
Marc Rowan is one of two Jewish billionaires in consideration for the role of treasury secretary.
A Wall Street devotee, Rowan and his wife donated $1 million to Trump’s campaign and is reportedly interviewing for the role with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago sometime this week.
Rowan is the co-founder of asset management firm Apollo Global Management and is the current CEO of the company. According to Forbes, he is currently worth more than $6 billion.
Following the October 7 attack, Rowan led a publicised campaign calling on donors to the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, to withhold contributions to the school due to its response to the Hamas massacre. He was one of the more vocal critics of former Penn University president Liz Magill, who resigned after congressional hearings over antisemitism allegations at a number of elite colleges.
Howard Lutnick. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
Howard Lutnick
Recently announced as Trump’s pick for Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick is another Wall Street veteran and CEO of finance firm Cantor Fitzgerald. As co-chair of Trump’s transition team, Lutnick is in charge of sourcing potential appointees for the thousands of federal roles that make up a presidential administration.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Trump announced Lutnick would co-chair the transition team in August after attending a fundraiser at Lutnick’s Hamptons home. Lutnick reportedly donated more than $10 million to Trump’s campaign.
He told the Philadelphia Inquirer last month that his decision to become more engaged in Trump’s re-election campaign took shape in the aftermath of October 7:
“He had clear, moral clarity when it came to Israel and what happened, and the way that he thought about what happened,” Lutnick said. “That was huge to me.”
However, the former money manager for George Soros has reportedly “gotten on Trump’s nerves” lately, according to The New York Times, for “hanging around him too much” and “been manipulating the transition process for his own ends.”
Miriam Adelson. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Miriam Adelson
Israeli-American businesswoman and addiction doctor Miriam Adelson has been a major donor to Trump’s political campaigns – he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2018 – and she’s believed to be the richest Israeli in the world as the owner of the Las Vegas Sands casino company and widow of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021.
Adelson, who was born in Tel Aviv, has been a vocal supporter of Israel and said in 2019 that there should be a “Book of Trump” in the Bible for the former president’s ongoing backing for the Jewish State.
She wrote in 2021 that “As Israelis, as Americans and as proud Jews owe him our gratitude.”
Adelson reportedly spends much of her time in Israel and is the publisher of the country’s largest print newspaper, Israel Hayom, which her husband founded.
Boris Epshteyn. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Boris Epshteyn
A longtime advisor to Trump, political strategist and attorney Boris Epshteyn will remain within the president-elect’s inner circle during his next term in the White House.
Referred to as “Trump’s TV attack dog”, Epshteyn often spoke for Trump in television appearances during the 2016 campaign and advised his 2024 campaign.
In 2017 when Epshteyn was serving as a special assistant in Trump’s first administration, he reportedly wrote the controversial statement for Holocaust Remembrance Day which omitted any mention of Jews.
As strategic advisor for Trump’s 2020 campaign, Epshteyn, who was born in Moscow and immigrated to the US at the age of 11, emphasised his own Jewishness by co-chairing the Jewish Voices for Trump Advisory Board and leading the campaign’s Jewish outreach.
The former communications aide for John McCain’s 2008 campaign for president was indicted in April of this year for his alleged role in the election tampering plot in Arizona.
According to The New York Times, Epshteyn has put in a bid to become special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict as part of Trump’s incoming administration though he has no prior experience in foreign policy. The proposal comes around the same time he butted heads with Elon Musk, who reportedly questioned his suggested candidates for Trump’s Cabinet.
Elizabeth Pipko. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Elizabeth Pipko
GOP spokesperson, activist and former model Elizabeth Pipko has risen through the ranks to become one of Trump’s most vocal young advocates from the Jewish community, from being a staffer during his 2016 campaign to a pro-Israel pundit regularly speaking on right-wing news outlets during the last year.
Born to a family of immigrants from Russia, Pipko, 29, grew up in New York City and attended a Jewish school. A rabbi from the Manhattan Park East Synagogue officiated her 2019 wedding to Trump’s director of social media strategy for his 2020 election campaign, Darren Centinello, and the wedding took place at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
In 2019 Pipko was a spokesperson for the Jewish pro-Trump Exodus Movement which encouraged young people to leave the Democratic Party and, in 2023, she created a virtual Holocaust museum called the ‘Lest People Forget Project’ to education young people about the Shoah.
In more recent months Pipko has spoken out against antisemitism on college campuses in the US.
Lee Zeldin. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Lee Zeldin
Earlier this week Trump selected Jewish New York Congressman Lee Zeldin to helm the Environmental Protection Agency in his new administration despite Zeldin largely voting against environmental protection legislation during his time in Congress from 2015 to 2023.
Announcing the pick, Trump called Zeldin “a true fighter for America First policies,” who would “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.”
During his 2022 gubernatorial campaign Zeldin, 44, rallied Charedi voters by emphasising his Jewish background and telling Jewish Americans: “You should not be targeted for who you are. New Yorkers right now have been under attack. There must be zero tolerance for antisemitism on our streets, in any of our schools and in the halls of government.”
Laura Loomer. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Laura Loomer
Far-right political activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer travelled with Trump during his time on the campaign trail and has appeared close to the president-elect for years despite never officially working for him.
Instead, Loomer has worked as a commentator for conservative organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars. In 2020 Trump supported her campaign for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but she lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.
Loomer ran again two years later, facing defeat a second time when she failed to beat incumbent Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.
She is known primarily for promoting numerous conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black and that 9/11 was an “inside job”, leading to her Facebook and Instagram accounts being banned/ Facebook, Instagram. Loomer once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.
Even far-right politician and Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been condemned herself for making prejudicial comments, criticised Loomer for “appalling and extremely racist comments” about Harris.
“Everyone who works for [Trump] thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.
