Trump reshares tweet calling NYC Mayor DeBlasio 'anti-semite thug' for synagogue coronavirus restrictions

President’s endorsement of alarmist tweet comes amid outrage among New York City’s Jewish communities

(Getty Images)

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio was dubbed “an anti-Semite thug piece of s**t” in a Twitter post criticising restrictions on synagogues and Orthodoxox Jewish communities, and shared by Donald Trump.

The US president reposted the tweet written by conservative political commentator and actor James Woods, on Wednesday.

Mr Woods’ remarks came alongside a video allegedly showing officers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) dispersing Orthodox Jews as new restrictions on gatherings and social distancing came into effect on Tuesday.  

The right-wing personality described NYPD actions as “an optic that I would never have expected to see in my American lifetime”, and the “Rounding up [of] the Jews”.

He also claimed that “DeBlasio is a criminal. No wonder he changed his name from Wilhelm,“ before calling the Democratic mayor “an anti-Semite thug piece of s**t.”

Those insensitive remarks were retweeted by Mr Trump, who sought to compare his Democratic opponents to the Nazis - whose crimes against European Jews are well documented.

He wrote: “Wow, what does this grim picture remind you of? I am the only thing in the Radical Left’s way! VOTE.”

It comes after New York governor Andrew Cuomo imposed tougher measures on several communities with significant Orthohdox Jewish populations, where coronavirus cases have risen in the past month.

Those neighbourhoods had positivity rates more than 4.5 times than of the rest of the state, the New York Times reported, leading to the mayor’s proposal for new measures on Sunday.

Despite Mr Wood’s claims, Mr DeBlasio does not have authority to impose such restrictions, which include the closing of schools, non-essential businesses and limiting attendance in places of worship to 10 people.

On Monday, NYPD officers were seen breaking-up crowds celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, causing alarm among officials working for both Mr DeBlasio and Mr Cuomo.

Announcing the measures, Mr Cuomo said he understood "the imposition this is going to place on them, and I said to them I need their cooperation”, but that large gatherings in synagogues needed to stop “to save a life”.

"You look at where the infection rate is, you look at those clusters, people will die in those clusters and this is about protecting people and saving lives," he added.

The orders have since been criticised by Jewish leaders, who called the timing insensitive.

“Announcing this in the middle of a Jewish holiday shows City Hall’s incompetence and lack of sensitivity towards the Jewish Community,” Daniel Rosenthal, a state Assembly member from Queens, wrote on Twitter.