Dear Mr. Trump,

It was inevitable that your divisive rhetoric would lead to mass murder. I don’t blame officials in Pittsburgh one bit for not wanting you go there in the wake of the deadly synagogue shooting.

Let’s be specific here: You have posted anti-Semitic tropes. You have called yourself a [white] Nationalist, clearly a beckoning to the alt-right that embraces anti-Semitism. You have called the American Nazis who marched in Charlottesville chanting anti-Semitic slogans “some very fine people.” You have stoked fears of foreigners in our population, referring to “globalists” as a threat to our American way of life, and everyone knows that this is an anti-Semitic slur since before The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

It’s the same purported “globalist” conspiracy that Hitler railed against. Listen to your faithful chanting “lock her up,” and then listen to the Hitler faithful chanting “Sieg Heil!” There’s truly no difference.

And you pretend your words had no effect and that you’re not responsible? The Pittsburgh shooter sure understood your message, but just felt you weren’t violent enough against Jews.

The Republicans are afraid to call you what you are: a fomenter of hatred. The Republicans are afraid to state the obvious: that when the head of the fish stinks, so does the rest of it, i.e., the Republican-controlled Congress.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger