Since 1916, American Jews have overwhelmingly supported Democratic presidential candidates, with the 2016 election being no exception. Donald Trump would really like to change that trend though, and on Tuesday, he unveiled his strategy for winning over the constituency: 1930s-era anti-Semitism.

President Trump said Tuesday that Jewish people who vote for Democrats are either ignorant or disloyal as he railed against two congresswomen who have been critical of the U.S.-Israel alliance.

“I think Jewish people that vote for a Democrat—I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office meeting with the president of Romania.

Oh yeah! Nothing like a good anti-Semitic trope about “dual loyalty” to reel in that Jew vote! It’s a bit like when Trump nabbed 8% of the black vote in 2016 by calling African Americans poor, uneducated, and unemployed. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Herr Trump’s latest remark comes as he and his Republican cohort have attempted to persuade Jewish voters to come to the other side by claiming that freshman Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, who have criticized the right wing Israeli government, are the “face” of the Democratic Party, and that any vote for a Democrat is a vote for individuals who “hate Israel and hate Jewish people.” That plan appears unlikely to work, not only because polls show that the vast majority of American Jews despise Trump, but also because:

• He literally just accused millions of Jews of being unintelligent and/or traitors;

• He once said there were “very fine people on both sides” of a white supremacist rally in which marchers carried Nazi signs and chanted things like “Jews will not replace us”;

• He tweeted a picture of Hillary Clinton’s face, on top of a pile of cash, next to a Star of David containing the phrase “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”;

• He ran a campaign ad that included the images of three Jewish people—George Soros, Janet Yellen, and Lloyd Blankfein—while warning that a secretive “global power structure” is to blame for economic policies that have “robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities”;

• He suggested that Soros, a favorite bogeyman among white nationalists and neo-Nazis, was funding last year’s migrant caravan—feeding into one of the most hateful, virulent, and dangerous anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of the moment.

Which of course brings us to today, wherein Trump has gone and done the exact same thing that he and other Republicans have accused Reps. Omar and Tlaib of doing. Earlier this year, when Omar implied that some Jewish people are more loyal to Israel than the United States, Trump seized on the comments as evidence that Omar is an enemy of not only Israel, but all Jews. Now he’s saying that Jews are a monolith and should vote exclusively based on their religious interests—which Trump falsely and inaccurately conflates with the interests of Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing government.

Shockingly, Tuesday’s little exercise in anti-Semitism didn‘t go over super well with actual Jews. “It’s unclear who @POTUS is claiming Jews would be ‘disloyal’ to, but charges of disloyalty have long been used to attack Jews,” tweeted Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “As we’ve said before, it’s possible to engage in the democratic process w/o these claims. It’s long overdue to stop using Jews as a political football.”

In a statement, Halie Soifer, executive director of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told the Hill: “At a time when anti-Semitic incidents have increased—due to the president’s emboldening of white nationalism—Trump is repeating an anti-Semitic trope. If this is about Israel, then Trump is repeating a dual loyalty claim, which is a form of anti-Semitism. If this is about Jews being ‘loyal’ to him, then Trump needs a reality check.”

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Analyst: WeWork IPO a dazzling array of inscrutable bullshit

Rett Wallace, like many who came before him, does not have a high opinion of this particular coworking biz:

The We Co., which is expected to raise about $3.5 billion in what would be 2019’s second-biggest initial public offering, must have put in a great effort to conceal the unit economics underlying the coworking space provider, said Triton Research Inc. Chief Executive Officer Rett Wallace. “The prospectus is a masterpiece of obfuscation,” he said in an interview. “If the underlying facts were positive, why would a company go to so much trouble to prevent you from understanding them?”

Using what it calls an obfuscation index as one component of its ratings, Triton has built a strong track record predicting the winners and losers among technology IPOs. Since January 2018, listings that won an above-average score from Triton have risen about 92% from their offering prices, nearly triple the return of those scoring below average. Triton sees high levels of obfuscation in WeWork’s filing. For example, the company stops counting sales and marketing expenses at a given location once it’s been open for two years -- but the spending doesn’t actually stop after that. Instead, it counts as an operating expense, Triton said.

“When companies fight you on understanding the basic proposition of the mousetrap, it’s always bad,” Wallace added. “People who have good mouse traps say, ‘This is the thing: You put the cheese in, the trap is designed to never break your thumb, and it catches mice nine times out of ten.’”

Trump says he could totally give the rich another tax cut without congressional approval

Just an FYI:

President Donald Trump said he can cut taxes by indexing capital gains to inflation without congressional approval, a move the White House has been considering for months that would largely benefit the wealthy.

“We’ve been talking about indexing for a long time,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “And many people like indexing and it could be done very simply. It could be done directly by me.”

Indexing capital gains to inflation was one of the options National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow threw out yesterday as a possible way to prevent a recession. But, according to the Tax Foundation, the move would do little to spur economic growth, and would largely be about giving the mega wealthy another tax cut less than two years after the last one. (The Penn Wharton Budget model estimates that 86% of the benefit of adjust capital gains for inflation would go to the richest 1%). In a sign of just how unpopular the idea is, Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s best boy, reportedly wants nothing to do with it.

Elsewhere!

Facebook’s Libra Currency Gets European Union Antitrust Scrutiny (Bloomberg)

Volcker Rule Overhaul Approved by OCC Ahead of FDIC Board’s Vote (Bloomberg)

Trump says Europe will give him anything he wants: “All we have to do is tax their cars” (CNBC)

E.U. slaps down Johnson’s opening gambit to renegotiate Brexit agreement (Washington Post)

“I thought it would get some giggles,” said the Edina resident. “Then people started yelling, ‘Senator Warren!’ People were clapping and running up to me to take photos. I kept saying ‘I’m not her!’ but I looked up and hundreds of people were staring at me.” (Star Tribune)

World Bank Says Water Pollution Weighs on Global Economic Growth (Bloomberg)

Walmart sues Tesla over solar panel fires at seven stores (CNBC)

Investors’ New Weapon in Japan: Votes to Embarrass the Boss (WSJ)

‘Mr. Tinder’ finds love offline after 14,600 failed matches (NYP)

“Adult Recess” Is Booming, Because Being a Grown-Up Is Hard (WSJ)

— The Trump-baiting Anthony Scaramucci interview that roiled the president
— Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged enabler, explained
— Trump’s bizarre handwritten notes to Justin Trudeau
— The private-jet controversy plaguing the British royal family
— The real-life events that may have inspired Succession
— From the Archive: Another whodunit in the Hamptons

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