(José Niño, Headline USA) A public disagreement between the Trump administration and the Anti-Defamation League has intensified, as both sides issue contradictory statements about their working relationship on crafting anti-Semitism policy.
The situation kicked off after ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt stated in a widely circulated video that the organization was “working with the Trump administration” to combat antisemitism.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt: We worked with the Biden administration to develop the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and now the Trump administration has implemented it.
"We are working…with the Trump administration." pic.twitter.com/jEBwClSkkA
— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) August 10, 2025
Responding to the video, a senior Trump administration official told activist Laura Loomer last Wednesday that while Secretary of Education Linda McMahon had agreed to meet with Greenblatt at his request, there was no ongoing partnership or coordination between the administration and the ADL.
The official emphasized that Greenblatt had not met President Trump, nor had he met with the administration’s anti-Semitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun or other key advisers.
SCOOP:
A senior Trump admin official has told me that @ADL CEO @JGreenblattADL’s comments about how he is “working with the Trump administration to combat anti-Semitism” are completely false and that he doesn’t have a working relationship with the admin. He hasn’t had a meeting… https://t.co/opnaplGgfp
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) August 13, 2025
They also rejected Greenblatt’s suggestion that the Trump White House was following the same anti-Semitism protocols as the Biden administration, asserting that the current approach represents a fundamentally different set of policies.
This denial arose as some right-wing media figures and activists pointed to instances they claimed showed substantive cooperation between the ADL and administration officials. Among the examples cited were the administration’s calls for prohibiting face masks following Greenblatt’s advocacy on the issue, public praise from Greenblatt for the arrest of a pro-Palestinian activist, and the Trump administration’s support for ADL-driven Title VI complaints dealing with campus anti-Semitism.
In a similar vein, Headline USA previously covered Greenblatt’s praise of the Trump administration for fighting antisemitism and .
Representatives for the ADL have not provided further comment, and Trump officials have reiterated that meetings with advocacy groups are common and do not necessarily indicate policy alignment.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
