Shortly after midnight Eastern Time Thursday, former President Donald Trump posted a rant on Truth Social in which he called Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro a “highly overrated Jewish governor.”
Backlash to the comment came quickly – from online commenters and pundits to Shapiro himself.
“Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics. He’s someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this,” said Shapiro when asked about it, per a video shared on X by White House Spokesperson Herbie Ziskind.
Ziskind also shared a response to Trump’s words: “It is Antisemitic, dangerous & hurtful to attack a fellow American by calling out their Jewish faith in a derogatory way, or perpetuating the centuries-old smear of ‘dual loyalty.’”
“It’s not even a dig whistle at this point, it’s a bullhorn,” said journalist Katty Kay during a Morning Joe panel discussion.
Trump has been called out for his use of antisemitic tropes in the past. In 2022, The Washington Post said he had a “long history” of such behavior after he wrote a Truth Social post that “attacked American Jews for being insufficiently supportive of him.”
Earlier this year, Trump said in an interview with WPHT that: “If anybody that’s Jewish votes for... Democrats, they have to have their head examined.”
Shapiro, a Democrat, was elected as governor of Pennsylvania in 2022 and took office in 2023. According to Emerson College polling from last month, he has a 49% approval rating and a 31% disapproval rating – one of the lowest disapproval ratings out of the governors covered by that poll.
While growing up in Philadelphia, Shapiro attended the same group of Jewish day schools where he met his wife and that his children now attend, according to the Times of Israel. He was sworn in as governor on a stack of Hebrew Bibles and has stayed active in the state’s Jewish community. The Times of Israel also reported that Shapiro started a pen pal program with Soviet Jewish teens and that he has “a record as a vocal supporter of Israel at a time when Harris has faced criticism from pro-Israel activists.”
“In response to Hamas’s October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, Shapiro mentioned the ‘many special moments in Israel’ that his family had experienced,” said the outlet.
Per his state biography, “despite working with the only politically divided legislature in the nation, Governor Shapiro has hit the ground running and delivered meaningful results for the people of Pennsylvania,” during his first 18 months in office. Shapiro was also thrust into the national spotlight after Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania this summer.
He has made such a name for himself that Shapiro was in the running to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. However, that position ultimately went to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
While some – including Trump – have speculated that Harris’ decision to pick Walz over Shapiro was antisemitic, he refuted that narrative Monday while speaking to reporters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Ill.
“First off, Donald Trump is the least credible person to listen to when it comes to hate and bigotry and certainly antisemitism,” Shapiro said. During a Wednesday speech, the governor also criticized Trump for being a “man with no guardrails” who wants to take away Americans’ freedoms.
Trump posted his Truth Social rant after that speech. In his midnight post, Trump claimed that Harris “hates Israel and will do nothing but make its journey through the complexities of survival as difficult as possible, hoping in the end that it will fail.”
As the Israel-Hamas war continues, Harris has also received criticism for not supporting Palestinians enough. Newsweek reported Thursday that a group called “Muslim Women for Harris-Walz” decided to disband after the Uncommitted National Movement said it was told a Palestinian American speaker wouldn’t be able to address the DNC crowd.
In addition to insulting Shapiro and Harris, Trump took time to praise himself in the Truth Social post.
“Shapiro, for strictly political reasons, refused to acknowledge that I am the best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had,” he said. “I have done more for Israel than any President, and frankly, I have done more for Israel than any person, and it’s not even close. Shapiro has done nothing for Israel, and never will. Comrade Kamala Harris, the Radical Left Marxist who stole the nomination from Crooked Joe, will do even less. Israel is in BIG trouble!”
Even as Trump makes claims about his support of Israel, The New Republic reported that he is “fresh off of a scandal in which he was accused of advising against peace talks between Israel and Palestine.”
That outlet also noted that Trump has made claims about his support for minority groups before, including a claim that he did more for Black Americans than any other president. This summer, the GOP presidential candidate made headlines for questioning Harris’ Black heritage.
In his response to Trump’s post, Shapiro said that Trump wanted far right Sen. Dough Mastriano to win the 2020 gubernatorial election in Pennsylvania. Shapiro beat Mastriano by more than 10 points, according to FiveThirtyEight.
“He’s the guy who’s been repeatedly rejected by the voters of Pennsylvania,” said Shapiro of Trump.