His apologists point to the fact that his son-in-law and many of his former employees and current cabinet members are Jewish, and claim that this proves he can't possibly harbor any bias against Jews - but his many statements and actions over the years belie that claim. For example, he wouldn't forthrightly condemn the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville ("fine people on both sides" ); and most significantly he uses the term "globalism," a dog-whistle that the alt-right takes as referring to an alleged Jewish cabal of wealthy bankers and others who are claimed to control the international financial system (e.g., George Soros). I just read an article (which I can't seem to find right now) that describes that this is the heart of Trump's anti-Semitism: he sees Jews/globalists as extremely powerful. And he hates them because he believes that this alleged financial influence gives them more power than he has, even as president. The fact that he has hired Jewish people doesn't prove he is not anti-Semitic; instead it is evidence of the existence of his particular brand of anti-Semitism. His son-in-law, the people he has hired when he was a private business owner (e.g., Michael Cohen, the accountants and the CFO) and some of his cabinet members and advisors (e.g., Gary Cohn, Michael Mnuchin, Steven Miller) are "his" Jews. He is their boss and he is more powerful than they are.
He said something, reported in a 1991 biography, that's a rather shocking double-whammy of bigotry: "I’ve got black accountants at Trump Castle and at Trump Plaza. Black guys counting my money! I hate it. The only kind of people I want counting my money are short guys that wear yarmulkes every day. Those are the kind of people I want counting my money. Nobody else. Besides that, I’ve got to tell you something else. I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”
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