Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on March 06. Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh
March 12, 2025
President Donald Trump escalated his attack on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday, suggesting that America’s highest-ranking Jewish elected official has denounced his identity.
“Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned,” Trump told reporters in a photo opportunity with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in the Oval Office. “He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.”
The comment mirrors what Trump repeatedly said during the presidential election, using the word “Palestinian” against Schumer as if it were a slur. At one campaign event, Trump called the Democratic leader a “proud member of Hamas.” However, in his remarks on Wednesday, Trump went even further.
In response, Amy Spitalnick, chief executive of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, accused Trump of weaponizing antisemitism to go after his political opponents. She called it “an extreme agenda” that undercuts democracy — “and it only makes Jews *less* safe.”
Journalist Julia Ioffe pointed out on X the problematic nature of a “non-Jew who determines who is and is not a good enough Jew.”
Schumer is expected to release a book next week that addresses the rise of domestic antisemitism. The memoir, titled Antisemitism in America: A Warning, will highlight Schumer’s family history and the future of Jewish life in America.
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