It has become difficult to go a week without learning of a new, dangerous incident of antisemitism and its platforming or defense by prominent American leaders. In a recent public event and report, the Center for American Progress detailed the sharp rise in antisemitism and the urgency in combating it, providing concrete policy proposals to do so, including expanding education around the Holocaust, Jewish history and culture, and antisemitism; prohibiting the banning of books; expanding training for federal law enforcement, the military, and veterans; and codifying civil rights law to cover antisemitism. Yet—despite the ideological right making antisemitism the center of its attacks on universities and the left over the past year—their movement is now being riled by divisions over its leaders’ and organizations’ tolerance and support for antisemitism. It is past time for leaders on the right to immediately stop their politicization of antisemitism and for leaders across the ideological spectrum to make sincere efforts to root out and condemn antisemitism in their own movements, institutions, and parties. Indeed, a central element of fighting antisemitism is to never give it safe harbor.
Recent events shine a particularly unflattering look at the dangerous new acceptance of white nationalism and antisemitism among the ideological right in America. Last week, Tucker Carlson hosted 27-year-old white supremacist Nick Fuentes on an episode of the “Tucker Carlson Show,” which was seen by 5 million viewers and counting. Fuentes has made numerous antisemitic statements, including saying “I love Hitler”; attacking “organized Jewry” as a “transnational gang”; saying that Jews are in the way of America’s “sovereignty”; and lifting up the so-called “Great Replacement theory.” (That last theory falsely claims white people in countries such as America are being replaced by nonwhite immigrants—often under the orchestration of Jews—to dilute their power and culture.) Fuentes has a history of denying or questioning the Holocaust, and the ADL reported that, during a 2025 livestream, he denied Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, suggesting that the acts of rape and other atrocities were “all a lie” and “none of it was real.” Despite an interjection by Carlson criticizing Fuentes’ antisemitism, their more than two-and-a-quarter hour interview was broadly positive and congenial and was amplified to Carlson’s significant online audience.
Shockingly, Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, published a video standing in strong support of Carlson. While Roberts opened by saying antisemitism should be condemned, he went on to say that “the venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail. Most importantly, the American people expect us to be focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.” He further criticized efforts canceling Nick Fuentes for his views, even if he disagrees with or abhors some of them. This led some conservative leaders; Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Ted Cruz (R-TX); and even Heritage staff to push back given Fuentes’ antisemitic views. Other leading conservative voices with strong ties to the Trump administration offered support for Roberts, including Steve Bannon and Eric Teetsel—the president of the Center for Renewing America (created by Russ Vought, President Donald Trump’s OMB director).
The inability of Roberts—the president of the most significant think tank on the right—to fully condemn the platforming of antisemitism casts an even more suspicious light on the Heritage Foundation’s Project Esther, an initiative to attack antisemitism on the left. And his open acknowledgement of a mission to attack “political adversaries on the left” without holding any accountability for Carlson or other “friends” on the right belie any altruistic motivation in their efforts to weaponize antisemitism.
Even if one were to generously take Roberts at his word that he disagrees with antisemitism but that society should welcome full debate about it, his approach would be a dangerous one. A unique characteristic of antisemitism is the role conspiracies and scapegoating play in its adoption and propagation. Merely providing a huge platform for someone known to spread conspiracies that have been a driver of antisemitism is likely to accelerate its spread.
Notably, this is also not Fuentes’ first platforming by a major figure on the political right. In late 2022, then-former President Trump hosted Kanye West and his friends, including Nick Fuentes, at Mar-a-Lago. Again, there could be no doubt about the positions of Fuentes and West. The previous year, West had posted and made a significant number of antisemitic statements, with the ADL Center on Extremism connecting “Ye is Right” memes to real-world harassment and other antisemitic incidents.
Vile antisemitic and racist views have long plagued the far right. However, recently, they have been creeping into the “mainstream” right, with—at times—only equivocated responses that attempt to shift blame to the left. In a number of cases, the Trump administration has employed, promoted, and nominated individuals plagued by past antisemitic statements or affiliations to antisemites. In just the past several weeks, a group chat of Young Republican leaders was outed as including messages expressing praise for Hitler, love of Nazis, and the suggestion of using gas chambers on political opponents. Vice President JD Vance offered excuses for these messages rather than strongly condemn them. President Trump’s nominee to direct the Office of Special Counsel—Paul Ingrassia—withdrew after Politico reported having reviewed a text chat in which he wrote he has a “Nazi streak in me from time to time.” And Rep. Dave Taylor (R-OH) alleges that an American flag modified to have a swastika and seen in his staffer’s cubicle was a “ruse.”
Yet, despite an unwillingness to bring accountability to leading voices on the right, conservative members of the House Education and Workforce Committee and the Trump administration have attacked universities for failing to adequately confront antisemitism on their campuses; pushing for the resignation or firing of leaders (such as at Columbia University, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia); and illegally withholding or threatening to withhold millions or even billions in unrelated federal funds to those schools.
As our nation faces a crisis in the rising tide of hate and antisemitism, it is more important than ever for us to adopt a whole-of-society approach to combating antisemitism that builds broad national support. Elected and movement leaders across the political spectrum—along with faith, business, labor, community, and civil rights leaders—must unflinchingly and unfailingly call out antisemitism and other forms of hate in their own institutions and spheres of influence. Only with that reinforced chorus will it be relegated to the far fringes and contained, strengthening the safety of Jews and other vulnerable groups in America.