Trump to Jewish Republicans at Las Vegas conference: ‘You’ll never survive’ if I lose

Former President Donald Trump spoke in dark terms to Jewish Republicans meeting Thursday in Las Vegas if he fails to retake the White House: “You’ll never survive.”

Trump, who appeared via satellite at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting taking place at the Venetian, quickly followed up by saying “our country, America, will never survive” if Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, win the November election.

And the U.S. isn’t the only nation at risk, the GOP nominee said. Israel “will no longer exist” under a Harris-Walz administration, Trump claimed.

Trump said the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas-led militants killing 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages that started the war in Gaza would never have happened had he been in the White House.

“When I left office, America was safe, Israel was safe, the Jewish people were safe, and the whole world was at peace,” Trump said.

Harris, whose husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish, has strongly backed Israel and after the Oct. 7 attack has reiterated numerous times that Israel has the right to defend itself. She, like President Joe Biden, has also called for a cease-fire in Gaza.

“What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” Harris said last month at the Democratic National Convention.

Trump insisted he’s the candidate who would protect “Western civilization and Israel.”

Harris, in accepting the Democratic nomination for president last month, says she is best suited to protect America and its strategic interests. “As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families,” she said.

Trump doubled down by questioning the well-being of Jewish people who support Harris, saying that Democrats “have not been your friends. … I say it constantly, if you have them to support and you are Jewish, you have to have your head examined.”

Pew Research Center research shows that 7 in 10 Jewish adults identify or lean toward the Democratic Party. It further said, “Jews are among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the U.S. population.”

Nevada State Democratic Party spokesperson Nicholas Simões Machado wrote in a statement to the Sun that it wasn’t surprising to see Trump virtually attend an event in Nevada “to spew more vitriol and lies from the same, tired old playbook.”

The war in the Middle East is approaching one year and Gaza health officials say more than 40,000 Palestinians, including civilians, have been killed in the war.

Trump did not express any concerns over conditions for Palestinian people during his speech Thursday. Instead, he promised he would ban refugee settlements from “terror-infested areas, like the Gaza Strip.” It was unclear how a U.S. president would be able to institute or enforce such a ban.

He touted the travel ban he instituted during the early days of his presidency, which had been challenged by civil rights leaders and made its way to the Supreme Court, with the court ultimately ruling in Trump’s favor. The executive order barred nationals from majority-Muslim countries, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, from entering the country for 90 days with limited exceptions.

“We kept radical Islamic terrorists out of our country,” Trump said. “They weren’t allowed to come in.”

Along with building on his travel ban, Trump said he said would “deport the foreign jihad sympathizers,” without an explicit definition of what that entails.

“If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don’t want you in our country,” Trump said.

Deportation promises are a consistent part of Trump’s messaging, including threats to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history” for undocumented people in the U.S.

Trump has said he would use the National Guard to target between 15 million and 20 million people for deportation, if elected in November. He has not specified how he would identify who is in the country illegally.

Trump was introduced to the coalition by GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson, who said Trump “has already proved that he is committed to Israel, that already proved whatever he is promising, he will do.”

Adelson, widow of former Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, has committed close to $100 million to Trump’s campaign effort this year. Many think the number will approach $200 million by Election Day.

In 2018, Trump recognized the Adelsons’ largesse to his political endeavors by awarding them the Presidential Medal of Freedom.