Nexus Project Responds to Trump Administration’s Dangerous Executive Order on Antisemitism

“As an organization dedicated to combating antisemitism, Nexus strongly opposes the new executive order reportedly set to be issued by President Trump. As detailed in the White House’s fact sheet, the order cynically weaponizes legitimate concerns about Jewish safety to suppress constitutionally protected speech and threaten vulnerable student populations.

We take very seriously the threat of rising antisemitism and concerns in particular over the need to ensure the safety of Jewish students on college campuses. We also know that deporting and threatening international students for political speech and activism is not the solution. Real campus safety comes through education, dialogue, and protecting the rights of all students — not through draconian measures that create a climate of fear and surveillance.

This action does nothing to address the real drivers of antisemitism in America. While Trump claims to fight antisemitism, he remains silent on Elon Musk's amplification of Germany's far-right AfD party and has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Health Secretary — a figure who has promoted the antisemitic conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was engineered to spare Jewish people. By extending mass pardons to the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who carried out the January 6 assault, and by employing and empowering figures like Elon Musk and other officials who promote antisemitic conspiracy theories and ideology, the Trump Administration has already shown contempt for the true interests and safety of our community. There’s every reason to fear that this executive order is designed to distract from those threats and from their own harmful actions.

The threat to deport students for peaceful protest not only undermines core democratic values but also puts Jewish Americans at greater risk by feeding into antisemitic tropes about Jewish power and censorship. True security for Jewish communities comes through protecting democratic institutions and civil liberties for all, not through authoritarian measures that target other minority groups.

This order represents exactly the kind of government overreach and scapegoating that has historically endangered both Jewish communities and American democracy itself. We urge the Trump Administration to clean out the antisemitism, bigotry and extremism in its own ranks, to recognize the value and importance of civil rights and free speech, and to defer to the communal leaders and experts who know that this threat requires nuanced solutions, not heavy-handed punishments and PR stunts.”