By Sam Kestenbaum March 27, 2017

Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan urged President Trump to “extricate” himself from perceived Jewish influence in the White House — starting with Jared Kushner.

“Ask any Jew, even your son-in-law, America is never first, Israel is always first,” Farrakhan said, referencing Jared Kushner. “Mr. Trump, you have to extricate yourself from being controlled by any one of these.”

Farrakhan delivered the comments to a crowd of thousands last month at the annual holiday known as Saviours’ Day, which commemorates the birth of Master Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation of Islam. Farrakhan shared a video of the comments on Twitter on Friday.

Farrakhan and the Nation have drawn criticism from groups over the years such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for comments some see as inflammatory and anti-Semitic. This past year, Farrakhan has spoken highly of Trump in multiple interviews, notable with Infowars, the pro-Trump website run by conspiracist theorist Alex Jones.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount