 An arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro caused enormous destruction. |
ON THE first night of Passover, a would-be assassin allegedly attempted to kill Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, one of the nation's most prominent Jewish politicians, by burning him and his family in their home. A mentally disturbed 38-year-old arrested in the attack, Cody Balmer, was recorded on security cameras climbing the fence of the governor's residence, using a sledgehammer to smash several windows, then igniting fires with homemade Molotov cocktails. In the large dining room where the Shapiros had gathered earlier for their Passover Seder, the destruction caused by the fire was massive.
Fortunately, the governor and his family weren't hurt. They were asleep in another part of the house and were evacuated by firefighters. But the episode could have ended in a bloodbath. Balmer told police he was "harboring a hatred" for Shapiro because of his support of Israel. According to the affidavit outlining the charges against him, Balmer planned to attack the governor with his sledgehammer if he encountered him inside the residence. He was arrested for attempted homicide, aggravated arson, and terrorism.
Following the attempt on Shapiro's life, Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel spoke with the governor. Bondi called the attack "horrific" and told reporters the federal government would do "anything we can to help convict the person that did this."
But for days after the arson, President Trump neither reached out to Shapiro nor condemned the nightmarish attack on social media. When asked about the attack two days after it occurred, he brushed it aside, telling reporters that the perpetrator "was probably just a whack job and certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen." (He emphasized that "the attacker was not a fan of Trump.") Not until the following Saturday, nearly seven days after the attempt to kill Shapiro, did the president finally place a call to the governor. They "spoke for quite a bit of time," Shapiro said on Monday, though he provided no details.
On the face of it, one would have expected Trump to be among the first and most vehement leaders to condemn the plot against Shapiro and his family. After all, Trump himself was the target of two assassination attempts in 2024, one of which came within a few millimeters of ending Trump's life. Learning of a new attempt to assassinate a US politician, surely Trump should have instinctively reacted with outrage and sympathy. All the more so because that is exactly how Shapiro reacted when Trump was shot and very nearly killed last summer.
"Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable," the governor, a Democrat, posted on X at the time. He added that he and his wife were "praying for President Trump, the Secret Service officers who protected him, those attending the event, and all of the first responders still on the scene." He reached out to the Trump campaign, to Republican officials attending the rally, and to the family of Corey Comperatore, the staunch Republican who was shot and killed at the rally. Shapiro called Comperatore "a hero" and ordered flags lowered to half-staff in his honor.
Yet all that wasn't enough to prompt Trump to denounce the burning of the governor's mansion. Neither was the fact that he claims to be spearheading an unprecedented presidential campaign against antisemitism and that he calls himself the "best friend" American Jews have ever had in the White House. The Trump administration has repeatedly cited bigotry against Jews and support for anti-Israel terrorism as the justification for some of its most controversial actions, from defunding Ivy League universities to revoking the visas of foreign nationals who engage in "pro-jihadist protests."
Wouldn't a president who keeps insisting he has no tolerance for anti-Jewish violence have responded at once to the firebombing of the home of a Jewish governor? The would-be assassination attempt was plainly an anti-Israel terrorist attack. It was, as Fox News put it, "the epitome of antisemitism." Why did it take Trump a week to show concern?
The observance this week of Yom HaShoah, the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, is a moment to reflect that political leaders who hold themselves out as defenders of Jews from persecution have not always lived up to their promises. In the 1940s, passionate Jewish American supporters of President Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced themselves that he was working assiduously to rescue European Jews from Nazi tyranny. Historians have since shown that FDR was doing nothing of the sort and that behind the scenes he repeatedly derailed efforts to save Jewish refugees.
Trump's apathy after the near-assassination of Shapiro ought to give his supporters pause. He may claim to be an implacable foe of antisemitism. His weeklong silence tells a different story.
Jeff Jacoby is a columnist for The Boston Globe.
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