Donald Trump defended one of his tweets on Wednesday, expressing no remorse for publishing an image that received criticism for being “anti-Semitic.”
The tweet featured Hillary Clinton and a six-pointed star against a backdrop of a pile of money and the words “most corrupt candidate ever” splashed across the star.
On Monday, the Clinton campaign attacked Trump, calling the tweet “blatantly anti-Semitic” because it featured an image that looked like the Star of David. The image was taken down two hours later.
“You shouldn’t have taken it down,” Mr. Trump remembered telling one of his campaign workers on Wednesday.
“I said, ‘Too bad, you should have left it up.’ I would have rather defended it.” At the rally, Trump accused the media for their role in hyping up the controversy over the tweet. “Actually they’re racially profiling. They’re racially profiling. Not us. Why do they bring this up?” Trump said. “These people are sick.” He reiterated that the star in the image was “just a star.”
Later Wednesday evening, Trump tweeted another image, a picture of a Disney’s “Frozen” sticker book. On the cover was a six-pointed star containing the words, “With 50 Stickers!”
“Where is the outrage for this Disney book? Is this the ‘Star of David’ also? Dishonest media!” Trump tweeted.
The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, was confused by Trump’s comparison. He said that there was no comparison between the star on a children’s sticker book and “a Jewish star superimposed on money talking about calling a candidate being corrupt.”
Clinton’s campaign took the opportunity to further slam Trump, tweeting, “Do you want to build a strawman?” a spoof on lyrics from the “Frozen” movie.
Trump, however, maintains that the media blew the controversy out of proportion. Though he never intended for the original tweet to be interpreted as anti-Semitic, he wished it hadn’t been deleted.
“I didn’t want to delete it — I would have never deleted it,” Trump told The New York Times prior to the Wednesday rally. “My people deleted it before they told me about it, they did it because of the sensibilities and sensitivities. But when I looked at it, I thought that’s a star. I never thought, that’s the Star of David.”
