This Anti-Semitic Term Was Casually Used At The White House 3 Times This Week
There’s perhaps never a bad time to stretch or rethink one’s vocabulary.
The term “globalist” has been used at the White House at least three times this week in reference to an outgoing Jewish Trump administration official, raising some eyebrows because the word is increasingly used in xenophobic and anti-Semitic contexts.
The word came up on Wednesday when a reporter asked White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders whether a similar candidate will take the place of Gary Cohn, the outgoing director of President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council.
“He was a noted free trader, a globalist. Will the president seek another globalist, another free trader?” Fox News reporter John Roberts asked.
This followed Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, using the word “globalist,” in quotation marks, to describe Cohn in a statement that was tweeted by his department on Tuesday.
Mulvaney’s statement also noted that he was surprised to get along with Cohn, who he said ended up being “one of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with.”
.@MickMulvaneyOMB's statement on the departure of Gary Cohn. pic.twitter.com/PgpOH6rcdE
— OMB Press (@OMBPress) March 6, 2018
Twitter users didn’t hold back in expressing concern over the choice of language.
just want to point out that using the word "globalist" in quotes like that might make this seem "anti-semitic"......actually...it definitely does.
— m i t h (@ManInTheHoody) March 7, 2018
So cool to see my government use some of the most common coded anti semitic language
— Alex (@akref) March 7, 2018
Damn. Not even trying to hide it anymore.
— Fakebot3000 (@BobDobaleeny) March 7, 2018
— ✨candi✨ (@txmom10231) March 7, 2018
The third instance came during a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, when Trump lauded Cohn as “a globalist,” while adding, “but I still like him.”
“He’s been terrific,” Trump said. “He may be a globalist, but I still like him. He’s seriously globalist, there’s no question, but you know what, in his own way he’s also a nationalist because he loves our country.”
The term can be used to describe someone who has universal or open-world beliefs, particularly in regard to trade or public policies, but it can carry a more sinister meaning for members of the far right.
For the anti-Semitic and neo-Nazi members of the so-called “alt-right” white supremacist movement, “globalist” is a euphemism for “Jew.” It refers to the longstanding conspiracy theory about an international Jewish cabal working to undermine the traditional white family and Western culture by pushing for immigration and diversity.
A glossary of extremist language published by The New York Times places “globalism” among terms like “alt-right,” “antifa” and “cuck.”
“For the far right, globalism has long had distinct xenophobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-Semitic overtones,” the article states. “It refers to a conspiratorial worldview: a cabal that likes open borders, diversity and weak nation states, and that dislikes white people, Christianity and the traditional culture of their own country.”
Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.
Figures such as conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Trump have used the term as a dog whistle for their followers. Just before the 2016 election, Trump delivered a campaign speech in which he described Hillary Clinton as working with globalists to “plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty.”
Its use on Wednesday, again on the national stage, led to renewed concern on social media ― in particular, that the word is being normalized or “mainstreamed.”
Really odd and a tad disconcerting to hear WH press corps ask about whether the president will hire another “globalist”
— Sam Stein (@samstein) March 7, 2018
Yeah, this is horrifying. "Globalist" is alt-right slang for "Jew" and now it's becoming mainstreamed by the press corps. https://t.co/Nou77uszqU
— Kyle Feldscher (@Kyle_Feldscher) March 7, 2018
It's jarring to hear a White House reporter nonchalantly ask a question using "globalist"
— Eric Morrow 🧐 (@morroweric) March 7, 2018
This story has been updated to include Trump’s use of the word on Thursday.
Related Coverage
History Teacher Removed From Classroom For Comparing Trump To Hitler
The Alt-Right, The Other Alt-Right, And The Rise Of The Alt-Left
Report: Anti-Semitic Incidents In U.S. Rose Nearly 60 Percent In 2017
Teacher Removed From Classroom Over White Nationalist Podcast Says It's Satire
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.