valencing:

a few thoughts about trump’s failure to mention the jewish people in his statement on holocaust remembrance day:

• antisemitic hate crimes have gone up from their already high rate since his election, including 48 bomb threats to jewish community centers all over the country in the past month, so this is a particularly urgent time to recognize the ongoing threat of antisemitism. trump declined to do so.
• compare trump’s words to the empathy and specific details on present-day antisemitism offered by barack obama last year.
• a ton of trump supporters hate jews. erasing jews from the statement sends the message that trump would rather appease his antisemitic base than reassure jews that he gives a shit about their safety. this is in line with his use of the well-known nazi appeasement slogan “america first” in his campaign and inauguration speech.
• it obviously would have been hypocritical of trump to pretend any concern for  jews anyway since antisemitic tropes were a hallmark of his campaign––nor could he unhypocritically mention any other groups targeted by the nazis; in addition to jews, nazis also slaughtered romani ppl, lgbt ppl, disabled ppl, and the left, and trump’s hatred and contempt for ethnic minorities, lgbt ppl, disabled ppl, and the left is well-known.
• this is the same week trump is banning muslim refugees fleeing violence and war, threatening mass deportations, and ordering “the wall.” when nazis came to power in germany many jews tried to leave germany for america but jewish immigration was sharply restricted and most were not allowed in. for trump to acknowledge the suffering of the jewish people in his statement would have sharpened the horrible irony of pretending to promote the idea of “never again” while signing executive orders born of ethnic, racial, and religious animus.
• so from trump’s pov it’s better to pretend that the holocaust was some vague bad thing that happened long ago rather than a specific and fairly recent atrocity made possible by the interaction of mass hatred and sadism with passivity and callousness, forces which made possible the presidency of donald trump himself