Following a misleading blog post from the left-wing Anti-Defamation League attempting to smear Donald Trump via claims of support from Nation of Islam cult leader Louis Farrakhan, media outlets far and wide spread the narrative without exercising journalistic due diligence pertaining to the veracity of its claims.
Titled, “Louis Farrakhan Joins List Of Extremists Praising Donald Trump,” the ADL post seeks to smear Trump through a tenuous linkage. Predictably, the ADL makes no mention of groups such as Black Lives Matter, La Raza, the Socialist Worker’s Party, or J Street aligning themselves with Hillary Clinton or Senator Bernie Sanders – all of whom share a thread of at least peripheral hatred of Israel and/or Jews.
Given the ADL’s stated mission to combat anti-Semitism, it is telling how left-wing manifestations of this resilient and dynamic hatred are often overlooked by its surveyors.
So what did Farrakhan actually say about Trump and how did the ADL distort his statements and events?
While Farrakhan did express support for Trump based on mischaracterizations of the New York City billionaire’s conduct, the ADL neglected to mention that it was couched within the conventional anti-Semitism and anti-American sentiment integral to the Nation of Islam’s worldview.
“What has [Trump] done? Well, one of the things that he’s done is told [the Jews], ‘I’m a billionaire.’ And he’s the only man, probably in the last one hundred years, that stood in front of some of the members of the Jewish community, and told them to their face, ‘I don’t want your money.’”
Casting Jews as conspirators who malevolently controlling the apparatuses of American governance, Farrakhan praised Trump for having rejecting their supposed bribes. Referring to Trump’s oft-repeated rhetoric about not wanting donations – which he makes to all manner of audiences – in light of his “self-funding” campaign, Farrakhan misrepresented well-received jokes made before the Republican Jewish Coalition by the real estate mogul in December. Also blamed on the Jews via the latest iteration of the Protocols of the Elders of Zions were the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The Daily Wire reported on the indirectly referenced events at the time.
The mischaracterization of the RJC Presidential Forum by Farrakhan was accepted at face value by the ADL, and not contextualized within an examination of how the events actually transpired.
The support for Trump was also based on Farrakhan’s prediction that a Trump presidency would destroy America and accelerate the ushering in of the end times, in accordance with Nation of Islam doomsday prophecies.
“I like Trump. He’ll take America to hell in a rocket ship, ‘cause he really got the courage to do it. And the reason I like him, ‘cause he ain’t bought and paid for, but that don’t mean you should vote for him.”
The ADL neglected to mention this, as well.
The Jerusalem Post, Mediaite, The Hill, Tablet, The Jewish Daily Forward, Foreign Policy, The Washington Examiner, and Politico are a handful of news outlets that unquestioningly ran with the ADL’s dishonest attempt to smear Trump.
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