Trump Says Campaign Shouldn’t Have Taken Down Anti-Semitic ‘Star of David’ Tweet

Presumptive GOP Nominee Also Doubles Down on Praise for Saddam Hussein

Speaking a rally Wednesday night in Ohio, presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump said he wishes his social media director hadn’t taken down an anti-semitic meme featuring the “Star of David” that the campaign posted on Twitter last week. 

On Saturday morning, Trump’s campaign tweeted an image of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton atop a bed of $100 bills, next to the Star of David, with the words, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!” It was later revealed that the meme had originally been created by neo-Nazi white supremacists.  

“As the Social Media Director for the campaign, I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image,” Trump social media director Dan Scavino said later Saturday, adding that the meme had been “lifted from an anti-Hillary Twitter user.” 

But Trump said Wednesday he wishes Scavino had left the meme up: 

Trumps remarks were part of a rambling, hourlong speech at a rally in Sharonville — outside Cincinnati — where he appeared alongside former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is believed to be on his short list of possible running mates: 

Trump also addressed the Department of Justice’s decision not to file criminal charges following the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s emails:  

And he doubled down on a statement from a day before, again praising former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for being “good at killing terrorists.”