Former President Donald Trump’s final message to a number of different groups increasingly includes this harsh line: the “heads” of members of the group who did not vote for him should be checked.
“Any African-American or Hispanic who voted for Kamala … you should get your head examined,” Trump said at a rally in Atlanta on Tuesday night. “They are deceiving you.”
It’s part of an ongoing trend of the former president telling specific demographics that they deserve ridicule or that there’s something wrong with their mental state if they don’t vote for him, which has grown in recent weeks.
In recent weeks, commentary has focused on ethnicity, age and religion.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for further comment.
Trump used the most constructions while speaking Jewish voters. For much of the 2024 election cycle, when asked or discussed about the Jewish vote, Trump used the term “check their heads” when talking about Jewish voters who might support Harris or, before him, President Joe Biden.
“Biden has completely lost control of the situation in Israel,” Trump said in April of the Gaza war. “Any Jew who voted for Democrats or voted for Biden should have his head checked.”
He also blamed the Jews if he loses the 2024 election. they said they would “It has a lot to do with loss.” Trump got about 30% Jewish voice in 2020, up from 24% when he ran for the White House in 2016.
According to an NBC News exit poll, Trump said the same for Catholic voters in 2020, a closely divided group that favors Biden over Trump, 52% to 47%. This is a group of voters Trump won 50-46 against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“I don’t know what he has against our Catholic friends, but it has to be a lot because he certainly hasn’t been very nice to them,” Trump wrote on social media in September, adding: “Any Catholic who voted because Comrade Kamala Harris’s head check necessary”.
Trump recently applied his “head check” rhetoric to senior citizens, who favor Trump over Biden in 2020 by a smaller margin (4 points) than Clinton in 2016 (9 points). For the support of voters over 65 years of age.
“Our seniors are frustrated by inflation, we will not take a social security tax for our seniors” – Trump he said At an event in late September.
“If any senior official doesn’t vote for Trump, we should send you to a psychiatrist to get your head examined,” he said.
Jewish and Catholic leaders warned about The dangers of Trump’s language, they say, are a test of religious devotion.
“It’s very dangerous, it’s very disturbing, and it’s part of a broader normalization of anti-Semitism,” said Amy Spitalnik, director of public affairs for the nonpartisan Jewish Council. told NBC News in September. “Trump thinks he’s entitled to the Jewish vote, he’s entitled to the support of the Jews, and when they don’t give it to him, he’s quick to act on a disloyal or bad Jewish opinion.”