Jason Greenblatt
Jason GreenblattCourtesy

A senior Trump advisor on Friday attacked one of America’s oldest Jewish newspapers, slamming its editor for declaring a 24-hour ban on Trump-related articles, or what has been dubbed a “Trumpatorium”.  

Jason Greenblatt, a long-time advisor to Donald Trump who has become one of the GOP presumptive nominee’s closest campaign aides, excoriated the left-leaning Jewish Daily Forward (also known simply as The Forward) for the assertion made by the paper’s editor, Jane Eisner, that Trump bore responsibility for online bullying of Jewish journalists covering the presidential campaign.

Last Monday Eisner declared in an op-ed piece that the paper would undertake the “Trumpatorium” – removing all reference to the candidate and his campaign for the White House – as punishment for what she described as Trump’s apparent failure to do anything “to minimize or condemn” online bullying of Jewish journalists by Trump supporters on the far-right.

“Online bullying is a non-partisan activity — both the far left and the far right are quite good at it — but the virulent anti-Semitism many journalists experience today comes from what is known as the “alt-right,” shadowy white supremacists who mainly hide behind the anonymity of Twitter to traffic in horrible Holocaust imagery and directly threaten Jews,” Eisner wrote.

“Many of these threats draw on connections with Trump’s presidential campaign, using Trump’s image and targeting his critics, including several of our regular writers. Even if you don’t believe that the presumed Republican standard bearer has stoked this cyber-hate (which is a generous assumption), you have to admit that he appears to have done nothing to minimize or condemn it.”

On Friday The Jewish Daily Forward published a rebuttal by Greenblatt, who rejected Eisner’s claims Trump has ignored the wave of anti-Semitic harassment against journalists covering his campaign.

Calling Eisner’s assertion a “complete and utter distortion”, Greenblatt suggested Eisner’s op-ed declaring the Trumpatorium was little more than a “flashy headline” which was “designed to draw clicks” on the paper’s website.

“Mr. Trump has unequivocally rebuked all forms of hatred, including anti-Semitism.”

Greenblatt cited as proof a statement by Trump carried in the New York Times in which the candidate said “Anti-Semitism has no place in our society, which needs to be united, not divided.” He went on to mention what he described as Trump’s “lifelong support for Israel and embrace of Jewish causes”. Trump was once Grand Marshal of the Salute to Israel parade in New York.

“Sadly, Twitter and other social media platforms teem with trolls hiding beneath the cloak of anonymity, who pretend that their particular brand of hatred represents Mr. Trump. They do not.”

“Now that The Forward’s self-imposed ‘Trumpatorium’ has run its course, we await a pivot from TheForward to cover this election and, in particular Mr. Trump, in a responsible way and without any bias.”