US President Donald Trump has criticised Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, denying that the top-ranking Democrat is Jewish following his criticism of the Trump administration's arrest and avowed deportation of a pro-Palestine activist.
"Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I'm concerned. He's become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He's not Jewish anymore. He's a Palestinian. Okay?" Trump said on Wednesday at the tail end of a sprawling tirade against Democrats.
He did not specify the reason why he made the comments during a screed that lambasted Democratic opposition to his policy priorities, but they come after Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish person in the American government — criticised the administration's efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, an activist who helped organise campus protests at New York City's Columbia University last year.
"I abhor many of the opinions and policies that Mahmoud Khalil holds and supports, and have made my criticism of the anti-Semitic actions at Columbia loudly known," Schumer said in a statement posted to X, though he maintained that the Trump administration "must articulate any criminal charges or facts that would justify his detention or the initiation of deportation proceedings against him."
"If the administration cannot prove he has violated any criminal law to justify taking this severe action and is doing it for the opinions he has expressed, then that is wrong, they are violating the First Amendment protections we all enjoy and should drop their wrongheaded action," he added, referring to the US Constitution’s section on freedom of speech.
Last year, ahead of elections, Trump used the term 'Palestinian' in a racist slur, saying in a rally that Schumer, who is Jewish, was Palestinian. "He's become a Palestinian because they have a couple more votes or something."
Trump has previously called former President Joe Biden "Palestinian" to insinuate that being Palestinian is somehow a bad thing that critics say reeks of racism and anti-Arab hatred.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organisation, slammed Trump's use of "Palestinian" as a racial slur, calling it "beneath the dignity of his office."
"He should apologise to the Palestinian and American people. It is the continuing dehumanization of the Palestinian people that has resulted in horrific hate crimes against Palestinian-Americans, the US-enabled genocide in Gaza, and decades of denial of Palestinian human rights by successive presidential administrations," said CAIR.
'Red Scare and McCarthyism'
Khalil, a green card holder and a recent Columbia University graduate who helped lead a pro-Palestine encampment last April, was arrested at his university-owned residence in New York on Saturday, and transferred to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Khalil's attorney, Amy Greer, says Khalil was "wrongfully arrested" by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who claimed his student visa was revoked – even though he is a legal permanent resident and not in the US on a student visa.
He is also married to a US citizen who is eight months pregnant.
Fourteen members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, signed a letter on Tuesday demanding Khalil's release, criticizing his detention as an "attempt to criminalize political protest" and a "direct assault on freedom of speech."
On Wednesday, a federal judge in New York ruled that Khalil will remain in custody in Louisiana as legal proceedings continue over his detention and potential deportation.
Baher Azmy, legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights and part of Khalil's legal team, has condemned the government's actions.
"The US government has taken a position that it can arrest, detain, and seek to deport a lawful permanent resident exclusively because of his peaceful, constitutionally protected activism," Azmy said.
"It’s largely unprecedented, save for ugly historical precedents including the Red Scare and McCarthyism."
