Trump will be appearing each night of the convention.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Republican convention starting this week will have plenty of what appears to be Jewish-specific messaging, but the messaging’s more pertinent target may be evangelical Christians. President Donald Trump made that clear on Friday in a speech on the eve of the convention to a conservative group. Speaking to the Council for National Policy, Trump reviewed his radical shifts in Israel policy that included moving the embassy to Jerusalem and quitting the Iran nuclear deal, as well as launching an Israel-United Arab Emirates normalization process. “I could run in Israel, and I think they set up probably a 98% approval rating in Israel,” he said to applause. “So it’s been — it’s been good. And you know who appreciates it the most are the evangelical Christians. They appreciate it the most.” Trump still has overwhelming evangelical support, but it has softened lately. He’s seeking to shore it up in an election that could hang on a few votes in middle America. Trump also wants to safeguard Jewish votes, especially in Florida, where both parties believe the race could be close enough to hinge on Jewish voters. The convention could reveal the degree to which the racist and anti-Semitic theories embraced by some members have spread within the party, and how far party leaders are willing to go to repudiate the extremists. While top party leaders have lately disavowed the QAnon theory that a handful of Republicans have advanced in successful primary campaigns, it remains to be seen whether that translates to an overall tone at the convention, where Trump is set to speak nightly for up to an hour. Here’s what we’ll be watching as the convention gets underway. The Israel moments The convention schedule seems geared for many big Israel moments, chief among them Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s scheduled appearance Tuesday night from Jerusalem, reportedly in a video filmed with the Old City as a backdrop. In itself, Pompeo’s appearance is unusual; until now it has been considered unseemly for the nation’s top diplomat to join a political event. The location of his speech, which comes a day into Pompeo’s five-day Middle East trip, makes it stand out even more. Israel likely will also feature large on Monday night when Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and an Israel champion, is scheduled to speak, and on Wednesday, when New York Rep. Lee Zeldin, who is Jewish and the GOP’s top pro-Israel spokesman in Congress, is on the schedule. While Trump has explicitly said that some of his Israel policy shifts were designed to appeal to evangelicals, it’s clear that the party is counting on Israel to appeal to Jewish Republicans, too. During a pre-convention call with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Sunday night, the director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Matt Brooks, emphasized that his group plans to “go into the critical battleground states around the country in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan to really make sure that in what is going to be a very close election, that the Jewish community shows its support for this president.
