Anne Frank Center Criticizes Trump’s ‘Pathetic Asterisk Of Condescension’

The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect called President Donald Trump’s comments denouncing anti-Semitism Tuesday “a pathetic asterisk of condescension.”

Trump made his most direct condemnation of anti-Semitism yet in an interview and remarks at the National Museum For African American History and Culture in Washington.

“The President’s sudden acknowledgement is a Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration,” a statement posted to the Anne Frank Center’s Facebook page read. “His statement today is a pathetic asterisk of condescension after weeks in which he and his staff have committed grotesque acts and omissions reflecting Antisemitism, yet day after day have refused to apologize and correct the record.”

The Anne Frank Center is a New York-based partner of the Amsterdam-based Anne Frank House. It describes itself as a civil and human rights organization and has been harshly critical of Trump in the past.

Trump refused to address a series of bomb threats against Jewish community centers when asked about the threats by a Jewish journalist during a press conference last week. Trump cut the journalist off and said “I hate even the question.” The White House’s statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day also left out any mention of Jews.

“Make no mistake: The Antisemitism coming out of this Administration is the worst we have ever seen from any Administration,” the Anne Frank Center’s statement added. “The White House repeatedly refused to mention Jews in its Holocaust remembrance, and had the audacity to take offense when the world pointed out the ramifications of Holocaust denial.”

“And it was only yesterday, President’s Day, that Jewish Community Centers across the nation received bomb threats, and the President said absolutely nothing. When President Trump responds to Antisemitism proactively and in real time, and without pleas and pressure, that’s when we’ll be able to say this President has turned a corner. This is not that moment,” the group said.

The White House condemned “hatred and hate-motivated violence of any kind,” on Monday, but made no reference to anti-Semitism. Trump was more explicit Tuesday in his condemnation of the threats, and of the vandalism of dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Missouri.