Trump's Love/Hate Relationship with Jews

Happy Sunday, Friends,

The Trump campaign has been openly anti-Semitic in the past, as I've posted, with its Nazi-esque tweet of a Jewish Star over hundred dollar bills and an unflattering face shot of Hillary Clinton. You remember it.

And now, the campaign's new executive director, Steve Bannon, has been accused by one of his ex-wives of being openly anti-Jewish.

It's not enough that Bannon flirts with white supremacy as the guru of the Alt Right--a mantle he earned through his directorship of the Breitbart News Network, described by renowned political strategist David Gergen as making "FOX News look tame."

Bannon allegedly told his ex-wife on several occasions that he didn't want to send his daughter to an exclusive private school to which she'd been accepted because "too many Jews went there. And he didn't like Jews and the way raised their children."

Now, Trump can't really be anti-Semitic, can he? After all, he recently tweeted that he's so happy to have another 'Jewish' grandchild.

Sorry, Donald. You don't qualify for membership to the club on
any count. First, you really have to be a billionaire.

And indeed, his daughter Ivanka has converted to Orthodox Judaism, her husband Jared's religion. And her three children are being raised in the faith.

I'll give you a clue what The Donald is really so happy about.

What do these people have in common: Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, Sheldon Adelson, Steve Wynn, Michael Bloomberg, Carl Icahn, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Sergey Brin, Mark Cuban, and Charles Kushner?

Put it this way, they're all legitimate billionaires...and they're all members of another exclusive club.

Throw in the current and two former directors of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan, and you can easily see why Trump is thrilled with his grandkids' heritage.

His progeny are his proxy entry into the same club...so he thinks. It isn't.

I've compared Trump's campaign with various Seinfeld episodes in the past, and he's reminding me of another one. Bannon is actually part owner of the show, which is the height of irony.

In the episode, dentist Tim Watley (Bryan Cranston) converts to Judaism so he can tell Jewish jokes and get away with it. WRONG! It was still offensive--in the show, and in the Trump campaign.

Not only does Trump think son-in-law Jared, daughter Ivanka and the grandkids give him a pass, but he surrounds himself with other Jews to say his anti-Semitism is okay.

Icahn is his best buddy, but his lawyer Michael Cohen, his doctor Harold Bornstein, and his surrogate Boris Epshteyn are just some of the others.

Trump may have accomplished the billionaire status that's a requirement for entry into the club, but he can never attain the other membership requirement--short of conversion.

He's secured both for his legacy, but he's deeply resentful that he can't have the full membership he covets.

Hence...Steve Bannon.