Gov. Josh Shapiro says Donald Trump is ‘obsessed’ with him after his ‘antisemitic’ Truth Social rant

CHICAGO — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on Thursday said former President Donald Trump was “obsessed” with him and accused him of promoting “antisemitic tropes,” following the former president’s late-night social media attack on Shapiro.

After Shapiro’s Wednesday night speech at the Democratic National Convention, Trump called him a “highly overrated Jewish Governor” in a post on his Truth Social network. Trump claimed the Democrat “has done nothing for Israel” and called his speech “really bad and poorly delivered.” The former president also claimed without merit that Vice President Kamala Harris “hates Israel” and that he’s done more for Israel “than any person.”

Thursday in Chicago, Shapiro told reporters, “It’s clear over the last few days Donald Trump is obsessed with me and obsessed with continuing to spew hate and division in our politics. He’s someone who has routinely peddled antisemitic tropes like this.”

Shapiro has become a frequent target in recent weeks for Trump, whose criticisms have often focused on the governor’s Jewish faith. And the governor has faced weeks of attacks about his religion and his stance on Israel from both the left and the right, while he was in the national spotlight as a potential running mate for Harris. Shapiro, who frequently says his faith led him to a career in public service, faced more scrutiny and opposition than other candidates during the vetting process.

Some progressive Democrats who oppose President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war urged Harris not to select Shapiro — the only Jewish candidate in the running for vice president — despite all of the front-runners sharing similar views on Israel. Republicans who strongly support Israel, meanwhile, have claimed Shapiro hasn’t done enough to support the country and have accused Harris of passing over him as a running mate because she is antisemitic. (Shapiro has vehemently denied those claims, and Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff, is Jewish.)

Shapiro, a first-term governor whose visit to the DNC this week culminated in his prime-time address in support of Harris and Walz, will be a prominent surrogate for Democrats this fall in his critical swing state. And others, from Jewish leaders to the White House, jumped to his defense Thursday morning to denounce Trump’s latest attack on him.

Trump’s comments are a “calculated way to rile up antisemites,” said Rabbi Beth Janus, co-president of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia.

Shapiro said Thursday that the way Trump judges Jewish elected officials by their stances on Israel — and positions himself as the arbiter of who is a good Jewish leader — promotes a “notion of a dual loyalty” that is “at its heart antisemitic.“

”Jewish elected officials care about a whole lot of things like … how we give our kids a great quality education, how we make sure our streets are safe, how we create opportunity,” Shapiro said. “And yeah, we care about Israel, too. But last I checked the job of the governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not involve foreign policy with Israel.”

Shapiro moved quickly to fundraise off Trump’s attacks, sending a text to his supporters Thursday afternoon asking them to contribute to “show Donald Trump that the people of our Commonwealth are tired of his divisiveness and endless grievances.” He is splitting his fundraising from the day with the Harris-Walz campaign.

Earlier this week, Shapiro said he’s “not going to be lectured” by Trump on antisemitism after the former president and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, have repeatedly suggested Shapiro wasn’t selected as Harris’ running mate because he’s Jewish. Trump most recently made that claim at a rally in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday.

“Donald Trump is completely full of it, and he’s trying to use me, and he’s trying to use other Jews to divide Americans further,” Shapiro told reporters Monday, as the DNC began. “We have seen this with Donald Trump over and over and over again. He is the least credible person when it comes to standing up against hatred and bigotry.”

Prior to his DNC speech Wednesday, he repeated this sentiment in an interview with Politico and said Trump is the “No. 1 guy who pushes these types of tropes into our politics.”

“That guy has absolutely no credibility to speak on these issues,” Shapiro added.

Janus, the Philly-area rabbi, said Trump’s latest comments were a “dog whistle.”

“Why is he pointing out that he’s Jewish? Why is that relevant to his role as governor of our commonwealth?” Janus asked.

The White House also responded Thursday to Trump’s latest remarks about Shapiro, with a spokesperson for Biden calling the comments “antisemitic, dangerous and hurtful.”

Shapiro said in the Wednesday Politico interview, streamed live from the convention in Chicago, that attacks on his faith and his support for Israel while he was under consideration to become Harris’ running mate didn’t bother him, but noted that the rhetoric impacted others.

“I recognize that I was attacked for my faith,” Shapiro said about the public scrutiny he faced. “I’m very proud of my faith. My faith calls me to serve. Those attacks didn’t hurt my feelings … What upset me about this was the way it made other people feel.”

Shapiro told Politico he heard from young Jews who said they were worried about their faith after seeing how he was targeted, which upset him. He also reaffirmed that Harris’ decision had nothing to do with his Jewish faith.

The governor also reiterated his position on the Israel-Hamas war, condemning the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and saying that he grieves the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Gaza.

“I don’t think those two concepts are mutually exclusive for all people who are involved in this,” Shapiro added. “I want the hostages home, and I want to see an end to the violence.”

Shapiro also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “terrible leader” and “has been leading Israel down a dangerous and destructive path long before Oct. 7.”

And Shapiro also had some jabs for Trump: The former president “has been repeatedly rejected by the voters of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro told reporters Thursday.

”He himself lost in 2020,” he said. “All of his handpicked candidates have lost, and I think he’s headed to another loss to Kamala Harris.”

On Wednesday night, Shapiro used his brief but energetic speech at the DNC to attack Trump and Republicans for trying to limit the freedoms of Americans across the country. His address did not mention his own background or Jewish faith, and instead focused on boosting Harris and Walz.

“While [Trump] cloaks himself in the blanket of freedom, what he’s offering isn’t freedom at all,” Shapiro said. “Because it’s not freedom to tell our children what books they’re allowed to read. It’s not freedom to tell women what they can do with their bodies. And it sure as hell isn’t freedom to say you can go vote, but he gets to pick the winner.”

Staff writers Fallon Roth and Julia Terruso contributed to this article.