‘Trumpism Brainwashed Yidden’: Satmar Rebbe Decries Election Fervor

Kiryas Joel – The intense ardor for former President Donald Trump that has taken hold in many parts of America has also infiltrated into the chassidishe community, lamented the Satmar Rebbe, Rav Aharon Teitelbaum, in a passionate address Wednesday morning.

“Trumpism,” the rebbe declared in a blistering tone, has brainwashed people, blaming the populist ideology for the intense gubernatorial election the day before, in which most Yidden voted for Republican Less Zeldin over the Democratic incumbent, Kathy Hochul. The reasoning was that Zeldin would better protect the yeshivos from onerous regulations voted on by the Board of regents last month.

But the rebbe of Satmar, which is the biggest kehilla block vote in NY, was one of two in the community to throw his backing behind Hochul — the other being the Skverer Rebbe — asserted that it was the eagerness for Trump which made the difference.

“You can’t fool the Bashefer (Creator). The Bashefer knows,” the rebbe said in his daily shiur after Shacharis to bochurim of the Satmar mesivta in Kiryas Joel.

The rebbe said that he had been watching “in pain” how the societal atmosphere changed toward Trump in recent years.

“Many people said that we have to go [vote] to ‘save chinuch.’ I was quiet at the time, because there’s nobody to talk to,” the rebbe said. “But I’m looking at it in hindsight now.”

"Someone told me this morning, ‘you won,’" the rebbe said. "Rabboisai, I didn't win. I wasn’t a candidate, I wasn’t running, I didn’t win at all. I just thought clearly about what would be better for the gezeiras hachinuch.”

“What pains me,” he added, “is that if we would truly think about it, Trumpism won. Trumpism has penetrated the Jewish people. Trumpism is what confused so many Yidden. Anyone who thought about it with a straight mind understood this immediately. Why don’t people realize this? It’s because of the obsession. Where did the obsession come from? It came from the Trumpists who have brainwashed people. This bothers me tremendously.”

The rebbe said he worried that if Yidden joined the movement to “make America great again,” we might be the ones to get the raw end of it becoming great.

“We are not going to fix America. We are in galus, and we are not allowed to fix anything. We can only protect ourselves,” the rebbe proclaimed. “We cannot fix America — if we say we are going to send a message, what if they decide to send us back a message? It will be very painful if they send us back a message.”