After the vehicle-ramming at Temple Israel in Michigan on March 12, U.S. President Donald Trump briefly remarked at the beginning of an unrelated speech that the attack was a “terrible thing,” that it was “incredible that things like this happen” and that his administration would “get to the bottom of it.”
The moment demanded more. It demanded a clear and forceful address to the nation. It should have sounded something like this:
My fellow Americans,
I speak to you tonight at a moment of profound consequence for our nation and for the world.
The United States, alongside our democratic ally, Israel, is engaged in a conflict that will shape the security of the Middle East and the safety of the American people for generations to come. Our objective is clear: to ensure that the Iranian regime—the most dangerous state sponsor of terrorism on Earth—can never threaten the United States, Israel or its neighbors with nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles.
For nearly half a century, Iran’s rulers have waged war against America and its allies. They seized our embassy in Tehran and held American diplomats hostage. Their terrorist proxy, Hezbollah, murdered hundreds of our service members in Lebanon. Iranian weapons killed Americans in Iraq and across the region.
For too long, these acts of aggression were met with restraint and hesitation. That era is over.
Together with Israel, we are dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. We are destroying the missiles it uses to threaten the region. We are degrading the terror networks it has built to export violence across the Middle East. We are creating the conditions for the Iranian people to reclaim their government from a vicious theocracy that has oppressed them for decades.
We will finish this mission. And we will ensure that Iran never again poses a threat to the world.
But while we confront danger abroad, we must also confront a rising danger here at home.
Today, a radicalized Muslim drove his vehicle into a synagogue in Michigan in an apparent attempt to commit mass murder. By the grace of God and the courage of security personnel, dozens of preschool children who were inside the building were spared.
This attack was not an isolated incident.
In recent weeks, a synagogue in Mississippi was set on fire. Nationwide, Jewish Americans have been harassed, threatened and assaulted—sometimes for supporting Israel, sometimes simply for wearing a Star of David. Orthodox Jews have been attacked on our streets for no reason other than the fact that they are visibly Jewish.
FBI statistics show that hate crimes against Jews far exceed those against any other group in America, and they are rising to levels we have never seen before.
This is unacceptable.
America cannot claim to be the greatest nation on Earth if any American, especially members of the Jewish community who have been targeted so relentlessly, must live in fear because of who they are.
The hatred we see today comes from many directions.
Radical Islamist ideology—exported and encouraged by regimes like Iran—has inspired violence across the world and within our own borders.
But that is not the only threat to our Jewish community. We also see such hatred spreading on the far left, where extremist ideology portrays Israel as uniquely evil and Jews as beneficiaries of “privilege.” The Democratic Party has allowed the likes of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib to spread their poisonous views in the U.S. Congress. More like them are running in the midterm election with the party’s support.
The disease that is antisemitism does not affect only those on the left. We also see it emerging from voices on the far right who traffic in conspiracy theories and bigotry directed at Jews and our ally Israel. I have condemned their statements and reiterate now that antisemitism has no place in the United States of America.
You cannot claim to stand for America while promoting hatred of the Jewish people. You cannot be part of the MAGA movement and embrace antisemitism.
After the horrific Hamas massacre of more than 1,000 Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023, our universities became epicenters of antisemitic intimidation. Encampments disrupted campuses, Jewish students and faculty members were threatened, and administrators at some of our most prestigious institutions failed to act.
I won’t tolerate that failure.
My predecessor did nothing to stop the takeover of our campuses. Rather, he fostered the radicalization of higher education with his support for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, which became vehicles for portraying America as inherently racist and Jews as oppressors. We have ended federal support for those programs.
Universities that failed to protect Jewish students have lost federal funding. Investigations and lawsuits have been launched against institutions that tolerated antisemitism.
The results are already visible. Order has started to return. The encampments are gone. Universities that once looked the other way are now enforcing rules to protect their students.
But our work is not finished.
American universities must be cleansed of the ideological poison of intersectionality that links every grievance in the world to Jews and Israel. And they must become transparent about the billions of dollars they receive from foreign governments.
During my first administration, the U.S. Department of Education uncovered massive foreign funding intended to project influence, steal research and spread propaganda. We will now go further to ensure that the names of funders are disclosed and that donations are not used to whitewash the threat of radical Islam or promote hostility toward Jews, Israel and America.
Today, I am directing my special envoy to monitor for combating antisemitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, to convene a national commission to develop a national strategy to confront antisemitism in America.
Unlike the previous administration’s ineffective plan, which partnered with organizations that themselves tolerated antisemitism, this strategy will use the full power of the federal government.
The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and every relevant agency will be mobilized to confront this threat. We will provide federal funding for security around Jewish institutions, but my goal is that Jewish Americans should not need security guards to pray in peace.
We are going to make America great again by ensuring the Jewish people of this great country feel safe and secure because antisemitism—whether coming from the left or the right—is not merely a threat to Jews. It is a threat to the very values that define our nation.
The Jewish people have contributed immeasurably to the strength, culture and moral foundation of this nation. An attack on them is an attack on the values we all share—freedom, tolerance and the rule of law.
So tonight, I say to the Jewish community of the United States:
Your country stands with you.
Your government stands with you.
And the United States of America will never allow hatred or intimidation to drive you from the public square.
As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation, I want to remind everyone of something George Washington wrote in 1790 to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island.
He said that the United States is a government “which to bigotry gives no sanction and to persecution no assistance.”
That promise still stands.
Together, we will defeat the enemies of freedom abroad.
And together we will defeat the forces of hatred here at home.
God bless you. And God bless the United States of America.
