Trump Positively Name-Drops Henry Ford, is Promptly Schooled in Ford’s Deep Anti-Semitism
President Donald Trump positively cited the famous automotive founder, Henry Ford, in an attempt to shame the car manufacturer for opposing his plan to weaken fuel efficiency standards, but he immediately encountered a vociferous backlash online for not recognizing that Ford was a virulent anti-Semite with strong fascist sympathies.
Trump’s Twitter post was even more egregious coming as it did in the midst of several incendiary comments where the president insulted the vast majority of Jewish Americans, who vote Democratic, and invoked a classic anti-Semitic trope about the disloyalty of the Jewish people.
The president’s particularly ugly and unfortunate timing did not go unnoticed.
Today is really not the best day for Trump to be taking the side of Henry Ford. https://t.co/XOBnuqTiy0
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) August 21, 2019
Henry Ford was an anti-Semite who published and distributed booklets titled, “The International Jew: The World’s Foremost Problem.”
“I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration.” — Adolf Hitler https://t.co/YJnUl8neiY
— Donté Stallworth (@DonteStallworth) August 21, 2019
Henry Ford was a fascist. He received the highest civilian award from the Nazis. No surprise you laud him.
— Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) August 21, 2019
Henry Ford was a huge Anti-Semite so you two would have a lot to chat about, fuckface.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) August 21, 2019
Oh come on. The writers are ending this episode with Trump positively citing Henry Ford????? Absolute hacks.
— Adam Serwer? (@AdamSerwer) August 21, 2019
First you were the chosen one. Now you’re the mouthpiece for Henry Ford. What a day you’re having.
— Shugar (@GregShugar) August 21, 2019
Henry Ford’s German factory was using slave labor in 1940. He turned down Rolls Royce’s request to build fighter engines for the RAF, and Ford was about to go bankrupt when he was forced out and replaced by his grandson, Henry II. I wouldn’t want him to like me.
— Dave Hogg (@stareagle) August 22, 2019
Perfect day to mention Henry Ford, antisemitic fascist scum! https://t.co/dzDQe995xu
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) August 21, 2019
Henry Ford would be very disappointed to learn who won World War II https://t.co/wPViBpK1KL
— Aaron W. Gordon (@A_W_Gordon) August 21, 2019
Fred Trump is how I envision the target audience of Henry Ford’s antisemitic literature, and if I’m right, that means the president probably grew up hearing about what a great man Ford was
— David Klion? (@DavidKlion) August 21, 2019
Maybe the reason @realDonaldTrump has such a good understanding of what would disappoint noted anti-Semite Henry Ford is because he shares Ford’s belief that American Jews hold dual loyalties. https://t.co/Ql0Vlj4f7Y
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) August 21, 2019
Glad we could start the business hours day with Trump basically calling himself the King of the Jews and close it with Henry Ford, famous anti-Semite, rolling over in his grave about consumer prices
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) August 21, 2019
But at least one person rose to Trump’s defense—kind of.
to be fair to trump there is a near zero percent chance he knows henry ford was a huge antisemite
— your pal andy (@andylevy) August 21, 2019
Photo credit: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images.
