The SAPIR Debates: Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews? Rahm Emanuel and Jason Greenblatt with Bret Stephens

92NY Talks

In American Jewish life, few questions are as fraught — or as revealing — as this one: Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?

For some, the answer lies in his record. As president, Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, brokered normalization deals between Israel and Arab states, and cast himself as an unflinching ally of the Jewish state. In recent months, he has demanded action on campus antisemitism and positioned himself as a defender of Jewish students.

But others see a more cynical calculus: a president who invokes Jewish loyalty tests, traffics in antisemitic tropes, and redefines criticism of Israel as bigotry — thereby narrowing the space for dissent and civil discourse. They worry that his brand of politics is less about safeguarding Jewish life than about instrumentalizing it, often at the expense of liberal values many American Jews hold dear.

In this launch of the SAPIR Debates, two prominent Jewish voices take opposing sides of this urgent and emotionally charged question: Jason Greenblatt, who served as Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East and worked for him for 20 years, and Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to President Obama, Mayor of Chicago, and US Ambassador to Japan. Moderated by SAPIR Editor-in-Chief Bret Stephens, this is a timely, unsparing exchange on identity, power, politics — and what it means to stand with the Jews in America today.