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Since his return to the White House, Trump has relentlessly attacked America’s historic allies while flattering its adversaries, such as Russia, China, and even the Iranian regime, between two “devastating” strikes. The cynicism of his administration, coupled with an outspoken pro‐Israel inclination that is not always reflected in its actions, has led it to exploit the raging wave of antisemitism to accuse these historic allies of weakness on the issue and thereby discredit them.
This weaponization of antisemitism was already apparent in the Trump administration’s battle against universities, which were rightly accused of negligence, and even complicity, on the issue. This necessary fight in fact allowed Trump to settle scores with universities he despises, by cutting research funding, challenging programs—some of them of questionable relevance—devoted to “diversity and inclusion,” and, more broadly, attacking academic freedom at these institutions.
The same logic is now at work diplomatically. The US ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, who is also a former convicted criminal involved in a sordid affair—he sent a prostitute to entrap his own brother in order to blackmail him—harshly criticized the French government over antisemitism. The issue was even invoked to criticize France’s recognition of Palestine, an initiative opposed by the US government. While that recognition can indeed be criticized, both in principle and in its timing, linking it to the scourge of antisemitism amounted to cynical exploitation by the ambassador, earning him a serious rebuke from the French government. The ambassador has also been criticized for his political interference, which is hardly diplomatic. Deeply engaged on the issue of antisemitism, his lavish reception of leaders of the National Rally effectively normalizes the party on this issue, indirectly illustrating the American administration’s repeated tilt toward the far right, in France as elsewhere in Europe, as demonstrated by JD Vance’s remarks at the Munich Security Conference in February 2025.
In the United Kingdom, the US government makes no secret of its deep distrust of the Labour government, and of its preference for Nigel Farage, leader of the far‐right, pro‐Brexit Reform UK party, whose ideological and personal affinities with the MAGA movement are by now well established. It is against this backdrop that the US ambassador to Israel has accused the British government of antisemitism over its criticism of the actions of the Israeli military in Gaza regarding the distribution of medical aid. This criticism may be considered excessive, but it is not antisemitic—and is particularly distasteful given the identity of the British foreign secretary, whose family was decimated in the Holocaust.
The same instrumentalization of antisemitism can be seen in the current dispute with Canada, particularly over tariffs. The US government’s loudly proclaimed decision to grant visas to Canadian Jews who have been victims of antisemitism is fairly transparent in its desire to politically exploit a very real problem in Canada, which the authorities have failed to address effectively.
Antisemitism is a global scourge, and the United States is hardly immune. Since 2015, antisemitic incidents there have increased tenfold, and this explosion is partly attributable to Trump. Antisemitic incidents did indeed double between 2015 and 2017, as racist, xenophobic, and antisemitic rhetoric became increasingly normalized following his entry into politics, and then again between 2020 and 2022, amid COVID‐related conspiracy theories to which he was not a stranger. In 2025, antisemitism reached a record level in the country, which should call for a degree of humility and, above all, an awareness that only collective efforts can combat this scourge—one that deserves better than irresponsible political exploitation, particularly on such a sensitive issue.
France—and, through it, the European Union—Canada, and the United Kingdom are probably among Trump’s three principal geopolitical targets since his return to the presidency. Antisemitism, which is real and deeply concerning in these countries, is an ideal pretext for attacking them, rather than a scourge that Trump seeks to confront together with them. As always with Trump, the goal is not to solve a problem but to weaponize it. What is true of rising prices or deindustrialization is also true of antisemitism, with Jews reduced to pieces on a chessboard to be moved around at will in accordance with his grievances against countries deemed insufficiently loyal or flattering. Jews were once the universal scapegoats for the world’s misfortunes. They still are, but they have additionally become a means of settling scores with geopolitical adversaries and, indirectly, of facilitating the rise of the far right in these countries, under an inconsistent, irresolute, and hot‐tempered president who prefers autocrats to democratic leaders.
