Donald Trump - Getty - H 2016
Getty ImagesDonald Trump on Saturday morning posted a controversial image to Twitter that included a Star of David and labeled Hillary Clinton as “the most corrupt candidate ever!”
The photoshopped image showed Clinton’s face next to the Star of David atop a background of $100 bills and the text “History Made,” with credit to “Fox News Poll” at the bottom.
Not long after the presumptive GOP presidential candidate tweeted the image with the caption “Crooked Hillary — Makes History!” the businessman deleted the tweet following an outpour of backlash from social media users who called his post “anti-Semitic,” which the Anti-Defamation League later responded to.
“Interesting to see a major party nominee leverage the antisemitism meme so aggressively,” Twitter user @ProfJeffJarviss weighed in.
Clinton national spokesman Josh Schwerin also chimed in and questioned the presidential hopeful about the controversial tweet: “Why is there a Star of David?”
After deleting the tweet, the former Apprentice star tweeted out a new image, which replaced the six-pointed figure with a circle.
Crooked Hillary — Makes History! #ImWithYou #AmericaFirst pic.twitter.com/PKQhYhMmIX
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2016
Two days after Trump tweeted and deleted the six-pointed star, he took to Twitter on Monday in an attempt to clarify the original image: “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!”
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 4, 2016
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Trump and his campaign’s social media director, Dan Scavino Jr., later released individual statements addressing the tweet. “These false attacks by Hillary Clinton trying to link the Star of David with a basic star, often used by sheriffs who deal with criminals and criminal behavior, showing an inscription that says “Crooked Hillary is the most corrupt candidate ever” with anti-Semitism is ridiculous,” a portion of Trump’s statement reads on his Facebook page.
Scavino penned: “The social media graphic used this weekend was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. It was lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user where countless images appear. The sheriff’s badge – which is available under Microsoft’s “shapes” – fit with the theme of corrupt Hillary and that is why I selected it. As the Social Media Director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image.”
Later on July 4, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt issued a statement in response to Trump’s. “This isn’t a liberal or conservative issue. It’s just common sense. Donald Trump should stop playing the blame game and accept that his campaign tweeted an image with obvious anti-Semitic overtones and that, reportedly, was lifted from a white supremacist website,” Greenblatt posted to Twitter. “It’s long past time for Trump to unequivocally reject the hate-filled extremists orbiting around his campaign and take a stand against anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate.”
Here is the @ADL_National response to the latest statement by Mr. Trump pic.twitter.com/3RKmFOnkbC
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 5, 2016
See the original photo below.
Interesting to see a major party nominee leverage the antisemitism meme so aggressively: pic.twitter.com/LmHZWegQte
— Prof. Jeff Brexit (@ProfJeffJarviss) July 2, 2016
Why is there a Star of David? https://t.co/CMidmfHbjg
— Josh Schwerin (@JoshSchwerin) July 2, 2016
July 4, 2:05 p.m.: Updated with Trump’s tweet.
July 4, 5:20 p.m.: Updated with Trump and Scavino’s statements.
July 4, 6:15 p.m.: Updated with ADL statement.
