Former President Barack Obama delivered a stark warning to Jewish and Muslim voters during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Sunday, criticizing Republican nominee Donald Trump’s track record with religious minorities.
Speaking at the Baird Center while stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris, Obama addressed the complex intersection of religious identity and political allegiance in the upcoming November 5 election, particularly in light of heightened tensions in the Middle East.
“Maybe you’re Muslim-American or Jewish-American and you are heartbroken and furious about the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East and worried about the rise of antisemitism,” Obama said. “Why would you place your faith in somebody who instituted a so-called Muslim ban? Who sat down for pleasantries with Holocaust deniers, who said that there were very fine people on both sides of a white supremacist rally?”
Newsweek contacted Trump’s campaign via email on Sunday for comment.
The former president’s comments come at a critical moment in the campaign, as both candidates vie for support from religious minority voters in key battleground states. According to a Pew Research Survey, American Jews favor Harris over Trump by a margin of 65 percent to 34 percent.
Trump has recently drawn criticism for comments made at the Israeli-American Council National Summit in Washington, where he suggested Jewish-American voters would be partly responsible if he loses the election to Harris.
The former president claimed that if he doesn’t win, “Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years,” while noting that he received less than 30 percent of the Jewish vote in both 2016 and 2020.
The controversy surrounding Trump’s relationship with religious minorities extends back to his presidency. In 2017, he signed what Amnesty International called a “devastating” executive order banning people from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The order, which faced multiple legal challenges before being upheld by the Supreme Court, blocked refugees and travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
Amnesty International described the ban as “cruel, inhumane, and in violation of international law,” noting that these countries shared a common thread: most asylum seekers from these nations were fleeing serious human rights abuses. The organization gathered over 31,000 signatures opposing what they termed a “license to discriminate, disguised as a ‘national security measure.'”
The impact of religious minority voters could prove decisive in battleground states like Pennsylvania, where over 400,000 Jewish residents reside – significant in a state that Biden won by 81,000 votes in 2020.
In response to Trump’s recent remarks about Jewish voters, the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, stated, “Preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential election loss does zero to help American Jews.”
Morgan Finkelstein, a Harris campaign spokesperson, criticized Trump’s associations with anti-Semites, “When Donald Trump loses this election, it will be because Americans from all faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds came together to turn the page on the divisiveness he demonstrates every day,” Finkelstein said.
Harris has focused her closing campaign message on unity and healing division. In her final campaign advertisement, she emphasized her commitment to serving all Americans while acknowledging the challenges facing the nation.
“Throughout this campaign, I’ve seen the best of America, and I’ve seen what is holding you back and weighing you down,” Harris said, citing concerns about high costs, fundamental rights, and political division. “You deserve better.”
