Donald Trump Keeps Calling Adversaries ‘Globalists,’ Despite Warnings It’s Anti-Semitic

President Donald Trump called out the Koch brothers, who are billionaire Republican mega-donors, as “globalists” on Tuesday. The brothers have long opposed Trump’s policy of increasing trade tariffs. 

On Sunday, Charles Koch, 82, devoted part of a news conference to criticizing Trump's tariff policies. "Every nation that's prospered is one that didn't engage in trade wars," he said, as reported by Bloomberg. Shortly afterward, it was made known that the Koch brothers would no longer back only Republican candidates.

Trump's attack echoed a line he used on the campaign trail to disparage adversaries, and sometimes allies, who disagreed with his worldview. On its surface, the word "globalist" seems like a convenient label for those who favor international cooperation over “America first,” isolationist policies.

But the idea of globalism (sometimes called cosmopolitanism) has a long association with anti-Semitic movements, and the term "globalist" has often served as a dog-whistle to mean Jewish people.