At a closed event for Republican National Committee donors at his private Palm Beach club Mar-a-Lago, Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he was so popular in Israel that if he were to run for election, he would earn 98% of the vote.
According to a report in the Axios news site, Monday, Trump again came out against the Democratic Party for its stance on Israel, following the recent controversy over Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's comments accusing Jews of dual loyalty.
According to two sources in attendances at the event and quoted in the report, Trump said, "The Democrats hate the Jewish people" and he did not understand how any Jew could vote for a Democratic candidate in the current climate.
The president prided himself on his pro-Israel policy moves, in particular, his decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday would not say whether U.S. President Donald Trump really thinks Democrats "hate" Jewish people.
"The president has been an unwavering and committed ally to Israel and the Jewish people and, frankly, the remarks that have been made by a number of Democrats and failed to be called out by Democrat leadership is frankly abhorrent and it's sad," she said.
"It's something that should be called by name. It shouldn't be put in a watered-down resolution. It should be done the way the Republicans did it when [Iowa Congressman] Steve King made terrible [white supremacist] comments," Sanders said. "We called it out by name. We stripped him of his committee memberships and we'd like to see Democrats follow suit."
Before Trump left the White House on Friday for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, he said: "The Democrats have become an anti-Israel party. They've become an anti-Jewish party and that's too bad."
Trump's comments followed an emotional debate on Capitol Hill about statements made by freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Muslim lawmaker from Minnesota who suggested Israel's supporters were pushing lawmakers to take a pledge of "allegiance" to a foreign country – comments that some viewed as anti-Semitic.
Democrats wrestled for days over whether a House resolution should call Omar out by name, what other types of bias should be mentioned in the measure and whether the party would tolerate dissenting views on Israel. When the final resolution passed the House, it did not mention Omar by name. Trump called the resolution "disgraceful."
