President Donald Trump has powerful predatory political instincts. The President set a perfect trap for the Democrats, thanks to the views of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib on Israel. Trump completed this ambush by virtue of his ability to frighten Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into taking an action he did not want to take — i.e. to bar the two Congresswomen from Israel, which thereby forced the rest of the Democratic party to come to their defense. If Trump could have stopped at that, he might have reaped at least some marginal political gain amongst Jews.

Yet, the President never knows when enough is enough. On Tuesday, at a Press session with the Romanian Prime Minister, Trump reminded most Jews why they keep voting Democratic. The President not only attacked the two Congresswoman, but then went on to say that: “any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat is guilty of ignorance or great disloyalty.”

Much has been written in the past few hours attempting to determine where Trump would assert this “great disloyalty” will manifest— toward the United States, or to Israel. In reality either one of the aforementioned explanations is equally problematic, and antisemitic at its root. Calling Jews disloyal to the United States is a purely antisemitic statement. Whatever he meant to say, this what some his supporters will hear. At a time when more and more of the people who identify with Trump’s views have either attacked or plotted against Jewish institutions, these words would be the most egregious allegation ever made by a President regarding Jews, in all of American history. 

However, if Trump merely meant to say that by voting Democratic, Jews were not being loyal to Israel, the level of antisemitism that accusation implies is nearly as bad. One of the major strands of antisemitism over the generations has consistently suggested that Jews maintain dual loyalties toward the nation in which they reside (in this case, the US) and to other Jews (now, the State of Israel). American Jews have gone to great pains over the years to make it clear that their support of the State of Israel does not impact their loyalty to the US.

If the President had any hope of moving some Jewish voters from the Democratic camp to the Republican camp, he lost that likelihood with his outburst Tuesday afternoon. For what President Trump does not seem to understand is that Jewish support for the Democratic party has nothing to do with support for Israel. Rather, it has to do with the question of antisemitism and inclusiveness. 

The Republican Party, in the era post-FDR, has been seen by many Jews as the exclusive party — i.e. the party whose members excluded Jews from country clubs — while the Democratic Party has been viewed as the inclusive party. Of the 138 Jewish members of Congress who have served since the FDR era, only 15 have been Republican and the remaining 123 were Democrats. Most Jews deem inclusiveness and fear of antisemitism rise to level among Jews of symbolic politics; issues that go beyond the normal cost-benefit analysis in political choice, and go to the core of voter identity.

There is no question that since President Trump took office there has been a steep rise in the mainstreaming of white Nationalism; an upswing that has resulted in two deadly attacks on synagogues on the United States, as well as, a number of additional plots against Jewish institutions that were thwarted. The number of antisemitic incidents in the US has skyrocketed over the course of the last two years.

Jews were fearful of candidate Trump, giving him the lowest Jewish vote in recent presidential elections. When the midterms came, an even more significant percentage of Jews (79%) voted Democratic. Trump is ensuring that this trend will continue.

It would be inappropriate to ignore the problems that exist these days in the Democratic Party. Ilan Omar has brought with her a version of antisemitism that is very real in the Muslim world. To many, “Jewish control and money” is the only possible explanation for how Israel has succeeded, while so many Muslim countries are effectively failed states … and how is Israel so prosperous, while the many Muslim states (not to mention the Palestinians) remain poor. 

This problem is not new. There have repeatedly been periods of significant antisemitism in the African-American community, especially among their most militant members. However, the Democratic Party has always known how to contain them — and no Democratic President has ever encouraged these views. Though today, the problem will continue to fester, particularly given this period of “intersectionality,” (where for some reason) there are people who believe Woman’s rights and LGBT rights have anything to do with Palestinians rights.

Despite these challenges, and regardless of the bullhorn Prime Minster Netanyahu, together with President Trump, has provided Israel’s fiercest critics in Congress, (by denying them entry into Israel), their voices are likely to remain on the fringes of power. In 2020, Jews will still not be inclined to increase their votes for Trump. In fact, just the opposite is likely, his professed love of Israel, notwithstanding. After Tuesday’s remarks Jews will presumably be even more enthusiastic about working as part of larger coalition of Americans to remove him from office.