Trump sparks online firestorm with anti-Clinton tweet featuring Star of David

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally, June 29, 2016, in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally, June 29, 2016, in Bangor, Maine. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump drew widespread rebuke on Saturday with a tweet featuring a Star of David while accusing rival Hillary Clinton of corruption.

The star, a symbol of Judaism, was on a backdrop of $100 bills and paired with a Fox News poll in which a majority of respondents described Clinton as corrupt. Next to Clinton’s face was a red Star of David bearing the words “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!”

Later in the morning, Trump posted a version of the tweet with a circle instead of the Star of David. He then deleted the original tweet.

The origins of the first post are unclear, but the attack’s apparent anti-Semitic imagery prompted backlash on Twitter. (Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, has converted to Judaism.)

Josh Schwerin, a Clinton campaign spokesman, was among those who highlighted Trump’s tweet:

But he was far from alone:

Trump has come under fire in the past for retweeting racially charged — and factually inaccurate — propaganda and for counting known extremists, like former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, among his supporters.

In an apparent response to the image Trump shared Saturday, Hillary Clinton’s camp tweeted a link to a who’s who of Trump’s extremist supporters on his website with the message, “The company you keep says a lot about you (maybe no one ever told Donald Trump).”