Former President Donald Trump challenged Jewish voters Thursday to overcome the “curse” of the Democratic Party and raise his share of the community’s vote to more than 40%, given what he had done in the past for Jews and Israel.

Trump made his comments in an address to the national summit of the Israeli American Council (IAC) in Washington, DC.

After a warm welcome by Dr. Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson, Trump recounted his achievements for Israel and the Jewish community,  including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

He also renewed his campaign pledges to stop antisemitism on campus by cutting funding and accreditation from institutions that allowed it to flourish. And he challenged his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, to disavow support from anti-Israel voters.

But in an apparently improvised portion of his speech, Trump told the audience that he had been disappointed that his support from Jewish voters had only increased from 25% to 29% (or 30.5%, according to the Republican Jewish Coalition) from 2016 to 2020. In 2024, he said, he was polling at 40% of the Jewish vote — but it was not enough.

“I did all of these things, and I only got 29% [in 2020],” Trump said. “So I wasn’t treated right. But it’s not me that was treated badly. … You haven’t been treated right.”

Trump said that Jewish voters could be a major factor in the election, despite the small size of the community, and warned that if Jewish voters did not turn out for him, that could “have a lot to do with a loss.” (Jewish voters could be a key constituency in swing states like Pennsylvania and Nevada.)

“You can’t less this happen. 40% is not acceptable. Because we have an election to win,” Trump said.

The crowd was very supportive, given that many of the IAC’s members are Israeli in origin. They applauded lines that mainstream, left-of-center media outlets have suggested were shocking or even antisemitic, such as Trump’s claim that Jews who vote Democratic “should to have their head examined” (a shared sentiment among conservative Jews).

He noted that he had strong support in Israel — “99 percent,” he said, with some exaggeration — but that it did not translate to support at the same levels among American Jews.

And that, he said, was a problem — not just for him.

He observed that the 2024 race could be the most important U.S. election for Israel in history, given the wars facing Israel on multiple fronts.

People hold up a banner as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at the Israeli American Council National Summit, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

He joked that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had “become a Palestinian” in his recent shift against Israel. Schumer was “Hamas all the way,” Trump said, adding that “I don’t know what the hell happened to him.”

Whatever kept Jewish voters within the Democratic fold — “habit,” he suggested at one point — Trump warned that Harris “hates Israel,” and that Israel would be “eradicated” if she were elected, a warning that he has made before.

“It’s a tough thing to say. … I have tell you the truth. And maybe you’ll be energized. Because there’s no way that I should be getting 40% of the vote. I’m the one that’s protecting you. These are the people that are going to destroy you, and you have 60% of the Jewish people essentially voting for them.

“If I do win, Israel will be safe and secure, and we will stop the toxic poison of antisemitism from spreading all over America and all over the world, and we’ll get it stopped.”

Trump has rarely been acknowledged by the institutional leadership of the Jewish community for his work on its behalf, including an executive order protecting Jewish students from discrimination on campus, and his policy on Israel. Only the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), among major nonpartisan Jewish groups, has honored his contributions.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.