Trump blames media for Star of David tweet controversy

Donald Trump blamed the media on Monday for fueling the fuss over his use of a six-pointed star in a tweet attacking rival Hillary Clinton.

“Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff’s Star, or plain star!,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

The firestorm started early Saturday when Trump tweeted an image that placed the shape of the Star of David beside a picture of Clinton with text that read, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever!,” over a background of a giant pile of $100 bills.

The Star of David is a Jewish holy symbol that Nazis attempted to distort by forcing Jews to sew it onto their clothing during Adolf Hitler’s reign.

The Trump campaign has not said where the star image came from, but at least one report said the anti-Clinton collage appeared in June on a message board known for white supremacy and anti-Semitism, as well as on a Twitter account with a history of bigoted comments.

Sarah Bard, the Clinton campaign’s director of Jewish outreach, on Monday slammed Trump’s tweet and his explanation.

“Donald Trump’s use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough, but the fact that it’s a part of a pattern should give voters major cause for concern,” Bard said Monday in a written statement. “Now, not only won’t he apologize for it, he’s peddling lies and blaming others. Trump should be condemning hate, not offering more campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists. The president should be someone who brings Americans together, not someone who sends signals and offers policies of division.”

About 40 minutes after posting the tweet with the controversial star, Trump reposted the Clinton attack image, replacing the star with a circle.

A dissenter quickly pointed out in a tweet that, “He just put the circle on top of the Star of David. You can still see its points.”

Trump’s explanation on Monday stirred social media reaction from those who did and did not agree with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate’s comment on the controversy.

One man replied to Trump on Twitter, saying, “Thank you, Donald. Happy July Forth [sic] from my sheriff to yours,” followed by a photo of a man wearing a Star of David in a concentration camp.

But some accepted Trump’s answer by tweeting photos of sheriff’s badges.

“Dude, it’s a shape that’s been used for a century….go away!,” a Twitter user wrote.

The Star of David squabble is the latest ethnically charged Trump campaign controversy. The brash New York City mogul has previously been scrutinized for making insensitive comments and passing on social media posts from alternative-right-wing groups. Earlier this year, Trump initially declined to disavow the support of David Duke, a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

“I think it’s certainly long overdue for Donald Trump as the presumptive G.O.P. nominee and as a person in the public square to reject — to flat-out, to firmly, to forcefully reject — the anti-Semites and the racists with a clarity and energy he’s brought to the campaign trail when going after other candidates,” Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, told the New York Times.

(This story has been updated since it originally published.)

Jason Sickles is a national reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).