Growing up Trumpish?

Coming soon! I haven’t been yet invited to the J6 Awards Gala, the latest fundraiser to honor the perpetrators of the January 6 insurrection and attempted coup against our government. It will be convenient for those who wish to attend — it’s nearby, in Bedminster, at the residence and golf club of candidate Trump. The goal is to raise $1,000,000.

My invitation must be lost in the mail. What about yours?

It won’t be the first of these happenings, planned to celebrate and support those who came to the Capitol with the goal of invalidating a legal electoral process, the 2020 presidential election. They were armed with tomahawks, axes, explosive devices, firearms, bear spray, stun guns, knives, poles, and many other items that were weaponized, including a huge poster bearing Trump’s name. They came to declare their faux patriotism at a riot fomented by the candidate himself. Many of them were swaddled in our sacred American flags as they gathered to kill and maim and destroy. It was an inglorious day, a day which will live in American history forever. Yet many of those arrested are once again to be honored by the former president. He will sing their praises. It will truly be unbelievable. Implausible. Preposterous, to bestow honor on an enormous gang of thugs!

Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

Really! Please, fellow Jews, before you vote for this man, remember what he has wreaked. And what else is still happening, like an obnoxious, unlawful campaign stop at Arlington National Cemetery, and a flagrant verbal accusatory sexual attack on Kamala Harris. Keep your eyes and ears glued to the news. Every day brings further embarrassment to our country from this crude, unpolished, and tasteless man, further proof that money doesn’t buy class.

The attack itself cost many millions of dollars in necessary repairs to the Capitol, and nine human lives. In addition, 174 police officers were assaulted. And who can ever measure the trauma to those of our government officials who found themselves at risk of death — people like Pence, for whom a gallows was prepared; Pelosi, whose office was overtaken by a savage and vicious Trump acolyte who showed his contempt by putting his feet on her desk and calling her name; and innumerable terrified others who needed to be escorted to safe hiding places.

This was not in some third world country. This was in our nation’s capital. Our nation! This was a rare promise that Trump actually fulfilled when he predicted it would be wild!

Yet these violent offenders are identified by Trump as hostages. Hostages! Those criminals who broke into the United States Capitol building. This from a man who a few of you suggest is a friend of Israel. This from the instigator, creator, and supporter of the assault.

Do any of you believe that perpetrators of that event are hostages? Do any of you support a celebration on their release from prison if Trump is elected, and pardons each of them, as he has committed to doing? Is this a devotion to Jewish or American values? Are these hostages?

We know better. Our hostages — for whom we reverentially and continually pray in our synagogues and whose pain we feel as if they are members of our own families — are not these lunatics, whose videos we have all painfully watched as they congratulate themselves on their cowardly achievement.

Do any of you disagree?

You may have noticed that I’ve recently invited reader comments on my online posts. To those many who have written, thank you. It is nice to make new friends! Happy to make your acquaintance. And relieved that you see Trump for what he is!

But there’s also another side. A dark side. Fortunately it’s very very small, and mostly it’s in response to my comments about Donald Trump. I’ve learned that there are some members of our New Jersey Jewish community who actually are supporters of his cult of personality. I would not have expected that, but it is what it is. I certainly don’t understand it. We Jews are smart and educated and very tuned in to the subtleties of antisemitism. We should know better.

We know of the relatively recent history of the Shoah, and Israel’s constant fight for survival. We are not living in a golden age for Jews. Not at all. Repeat, we should know better. We understand that a reference to globalists, for example, is an antisemitic trope, and we know that inviting known antisemites, like the weirdly named Ye, to Mar-A-Lago, is not innocent, no matter how Trump demurs that he didn’t know. After all, Trump also told us he didn’t know the history of David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.

And we’ll always remember his remarks that there are good people on both sides after the Charlottesville white supremacist rally. Non-Jews may not always see what we see, but we know better. When we hear the chant “Jews will not replace us,” we cannot be complacent!

A small number of you have written angrily that I am guilty of denigrating Trump. I make no apologies. Two of you have even sent me anonymous posts. Those I find the most interesting. Of course they are malignant and hateful, but I don’t fathom why you would seek anonymity if you’re proud of your position. After all, sending an email in which you are identified is easy and almost effortless. I doubt you’re afraid of me, a nearly 85-year-old local woman, who poses no danger to anyone. Perhaps you’re really ashamed of yourself and your position. Perhaps you know that Trump is a dangerous and deranged man. So why do you support him? It is strange indeed.

I’ve heard that Jewish fans of Trump regard him as being good for Israel. That’s not the context I understand. If you write again, please tell me why and how he demonstrates that he is good for Israel, in your opinion, and especially in what ways is he preferable to the Democrats, whose support for Israel has been overwhelmingly positive. I spend an enormous amount of time trying to figure out why you would think that. What has he done for Israel that has earned your loyalty? It’s mystifying.

To be perfectly frank, Israel is very high on my own list of priorities. I leave tomorrow for my fourth trip since October 7, but I have no faith that Trump is the guy who will solve its problems. Absolutely none. I am completely dubious that you support him because he moved the American embassy to Jerusalem or was involved with the Abraham Accords. Even Hitler and Mussolini had minor accomplishments. Trump is no Jewish hero.

The fact that Trump caters to the whims of people like the Adelmans, now only Miriam, with their multibillions of dollars, seems much more like bribery than ahavat Yisrael, love of Israel. The Democrats, led by Joe Biden, on the other hand, continued to support Israel with idealism and undeniable affection before and during this devastating, deeply difficult year. Vice President Harris has already indicated her continuing support. I’ll take love over bribery any day!

More critical, and this is the question I hope you can answer: Is Trump a man you would wish your children or grandchildren to admire, adore, and emulate? Would you want your children to model themselves after him? Does he exhibit characteristics and behavior synchronistic with Jewish ideals? Would you want them to attend the J6 event at Bedminster?

You know you would not want your own family members to be Trump-like. Think about that if you are intent on voting for him. Will you be ashamed to tell your children everything you know about that man? His womanizing, his unfaithfulness to his wives, all three of them, his boasts about being an admitted sexual predator, his buying off of porn stars so that he could avoid additional scandal during a run for the presidency? You know this is undeniable and tawdry. Clearly not Jewish values in action!

Would you want your kids to embark on lives of crime, committing endless dishonorable illegal deeds? Would you want them to deny payment to contractors, lawyers, and other employees? Would you want them to become swindlers, creating businesses like Trump University and Trump Air and Trump Steaks and a host of others? And would you want them to be incapable of telling the truth? The man can’t even provide honest measurements for his own New York City apartment as he seeks to inflate its worth. Those are not your values! Of course not!

Would you want your family members to live lives of deceit, whether it be in banking, taxation, or attempting to steal an election?

Would you want your children to dodge the draft with claims of fictitious heel spurs and then going on to unrelentingly insult genuine war heroes? Would his cowardice resonate in your family because you support his candidacy?

And would you approve of your children lobbing childish verbal insults to perceived competitors, name-calling like a disgruntled kindergartener, describing women’s appearances in disparaging terms, stating, for example, that she’s not my type. What is justifiable about an almost 80-year-old man, albeit with a limited vocabulary and inferior language skills, calling competitors by absurdly insulting names? What can anyone possibly say to defend those juvenile remarks? And what can anyone say to his taunts about birtherism against a former president and a present candidate for president? He has spent his life spewing vicious lies about his competitors and others, particularly minorities. Remember the Central Park Five, whose very lives he destroyed.

You know it goes on and on and on. You know that this is not a man you would wish to have your children emulate. This is a man with no respect for anyone beyond himself, a man who himself deserves no respect, a man for whom the honorific title Sir is wildly inappropriate and unsuitable.

You know that he represents a lack of honor and honesty in every action he takes. We know so much about this man, but certainly, there is much we don’t yet know. Suffice it to say that there has never been a less deserving candidate for the presidency in the history of our nation.

But, please, tell me his good points. I really wish to understand what it is that makes him electable in your opinion. Which of his values would you like to see in your own children? That’s fundamental to this discussion.

And oh yeah, feel free to write, but if you’re writing anonymously, please think about why.

Rosanne Skopp of West Orange is a wife, mother of four, grandmother of 14, and great-grandmother of eight. She is a graduate of Rutgers University and a dual citizen of the United States and Israel. She is a lifelong blogger, writing blogs before anyone knew what a blog was! She welcomes email at rosanne.skopp@gmail.com