Did Trump Imply Threats to Jewish Centers Were Fake?

Photo by Evan Vucci/AP

In a confusing remark at a White House meeting on Tuesday with the attorneys general of several states — including new Pennsylvania AG Josh Shapiro — President Trump seemingly implied that a troubling series of threats against Jewish community centers around the country might not be legitimate.

“He just said, ‘Sometimes it’s the reverse, to make people — or to make others — look bad,’ and he used the word ‘reverse’ I would say two to three times in his comments,” Shapiro said, according to BuzzFeed. “He did correctly say at the top that it was reprehensible.”

Pressed for additional comment, Shapiro reportedly said: “I really don’t know what he means, or why he said that. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.”

Anthony Scaramucci, an adviser to Trump whom the president wants to make director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs, tweeted on Tuesday that “it’s not yet clear who the #JCC offenders are. Don’t forget @TheDemocrats effort to incite violence at Trump rallies.”

Per Billy Penn, Shapiro said Trump indicated that he would further address the series of threats to JCCs and the incidents of vandalism of Jewish cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia in his speech before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday evening.