New York – Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, on Monday lashed out at the press for continuing to report on the fallout from a post he made to social media that included an image depicting Democratic rival Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of cash and a Star of David.
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In a tweet on Monday, Trump said he had not meant the six-pointed star to refer to the Star of David, which is a symbol of Judaism. Rather, he said, the star could have referred to a sheriff’s badge, which is shaped similarly except for small circles at the ends of each of its six points, or a “plain star.”
“Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff’s Star, or plain star!” Trump wrote on Twitter, two days after he tweeted the original image.
His tweet came after Mic News reported on Sunday the image attacking Clinton, which included the words: “History made” and, inside the star, “most corrupt candidate ever!” had been shared on a neo-Nazi web forum called /pol/. Reuters confirmed the image was posted there on June 22 by viewing a link to an archived version of a /pol/ page, though the page has since been updated and the image removed.
The Nazis forced Jews to wear a Star of David on their clothing to identify themselves during the Holocaust.
Saturday’s incident was the latest departure by Trump from a recent effort to appease Republicans worried about his brash public persona by trying to appear more restrained.
In June, Trump fired his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and began using a teleprompter to make speeches, hoping to show that his campaign could be more inclusive after earlier mishaps, including his statement that Mexicans crossing the U.S. border illegally were “rapists” and his mocking of a disabled reporter, which Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has begun using in attack ads against him.
Ed Brookover, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in an interview on CNN on Monday the campaign felt it had “corrected” the issue about the star by deleting Trump’s original tweet. Trump later tweeted another version of the image in which the star was replaced by a circle.
Brookover said the image’s earlier appearance on the neo-Nazi forum was irrelevant.
“These images get posted and reposted and reposted on social media on many forums,” he said. “There was never any intention of anti-Semitism.”
I live all my life in New York and trump is not anti semite. His daughter is orthodox and also her children. The media is very sad. Hitlary has long history of calling jewish staffers racial slurs and associate herself with Sidney blumenthal and his son (both of them rabid antisemites). The same hitlary Clinton that said KKK member Robert Byrd was her hero
Is he for real. Anyone can go on this Nazi website and see it for themselves.
Sometimes a six-pointed star is just a six-pointed star. Reminds me of people who freak out every time they see two perpendicular lines crossing (oops, sorry) each other.
Left-wing liberal media is scared silly that Trump might (will) win, and is grasping at any meager straw they can find to discredit him.
Before the media frenzy, my first impression was “star” maybe “sheriffs badge”.
There is no historical significance of jews wearing red stars, by force or choice.
I don’t see the big deal.
It’s not anti semitic nor is it a sherrie’d badge. It’s from an old kosher salami wrapper
Its become obvious that trump is a pathological liar, albeit accusing everyone else of distortions. This cartoon original on a white supremacist website. There is no way they didn’t know the imagery they were re-tweeting was not anti-Semitic. Either he is stupid, lying or both.
I still give Trump the benefit of a doubt. People who know say he is a nice man. Further, it is impossible to be a real estate guy in New York without partnering with Jews every day. He has lots of Jewish friends I’m sure.
But this episode shows how poorly he is running his campaign. He and his people are simply inept. Somehow he got this image from some right-wing site. Without giving it enough thought he republished it. When people complained, someone in his office fixed it by changing the star to a circle. But even then they failed. You san still see the points of the star sticking out.
Mr. Trump is not an anti-Semite, I hope. But he does seem to be not very good at his job.
the ‘sheriff’s badge lies on a pile of $100 bills.
every see a western movie like that?
puleeeeze