Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish activist who has emerged as a surrogate at Trump campaign events for speaking out against antisemitism within the Democratic Party, backed out of former President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday over Tucker Carlson being granted a speaking slot. 

Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who spoke at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump’s 2024 bid, told Jewish Insider he decided against participating in the event over Carlson’s attendance. 

Kestenbaum said he was in discussions with the Trump campaign about speaking at the rally, but that the plans were scrapped to make room for speeches from Carlson, Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), among others. 

“I believe President Trump, through the advocating for the Antisemitism Awareness Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act protections, Abraham Accords, and other measures, is the best choice for American Jewry,” Kestenbaum told JI in a statement on his decision. “I will be voting for him and will continue to make the argument for him to moderate and liberal Jewish voters as the election closes.” 

“I also believe that Tucker Carlson is a dangerous antisemite who has no business in electoral politics. I will continue to call out far-left and far-right antisemitism. Whether it be the right or left, I will never attend an event with an antisemite,” he added. 

The Trump campaign did not respond to JI’s request for comment on Kestenbaum’s withdrawal from the event over Carlson. Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) have stood by the conservative commentator despite his decision to host Holocaust denier Darryl Cooper on his popular podcast last month.

At the Madison Square Garden rally, which featured a litany of derogatory and bigoted remarks towards minorities, Carlson mocked the media attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity: “She’s just so impressive as the first Samoan Malaysian, low-IQ, former California prosecutor ever to be elected president,” Carlson said.

Carlson has emerged as a valued adviser to the Trump campaign, and will be hosting Trump as a featured guest as part of his cross-country speaking tour on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz. Carlson was given a primetime speaking spot on the final night of the Republican National Convention, and was feted in Trump’s presidential box in Milwaukee. 

Carlson also lobbied Trump to choose Vance as his running mate; the senator appeared on his podcast after the much-maligned episode with Cooper.  Vance was the guest at Carlson’s Sept. 21 stop in Hershey, Pa. on his nationwide tour.

Jewish Insider’s features reporter Matthew Kassel contributed to this report.

Candace Owens, a far-right pundit who has frequently broadcast antisemitic commentary, is no longer attending an event sponsored by the Trump campaign later this week, a source familiar with the event confirmed to Jewish Insider on Tuesday — after her scheduled participation faced backlash from conservative critics and Jewish allies of the former president.

Owens, 34, had been scheduled to appear with Donald Trump Jr. on Friday in Nashville, Tenn., for an event that will coincide with the annual Bitcoin Conference, according to an online promotional flier that listed her as a guest of the event until Tuesday afternoon, when her name was suddenly removed.

The inclusion of Owens — who has engaged in Holocaust denial and amplified blood libel in her commentary — had become a headache for former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as his campaign privately faced pressure to remove her from the event.

Shabbos Kestenbaum, a recent Harvard graduate who voiced support for Trump’s policies to combat antisemitism during a speech at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last week, told JI earlier on Tuesday that Owens “is not merely intellectually challenged, but a Hitler-loving antisemite who should play no role in normative politics or the Republican Party.”

“It is simply outrageous, inexcusable, and deeply antisemitic that anyone in Trump’s orbit would associate with her,” Kestenbaum, who until recently identified as a progressive Democrat, told JI, adding that he “will continue to call out the far left and the far right for their antisemitism.”

In recent months, Owens has delivered a string of virulently antisemitic statements on Jews, Israel and the Holocaust. In one commentary on YouTube earlier this month, she called Holocaust education a form of Soviet indoctrination while also casting doubt on infamous Nazi doctor Josef Mengele’s experiments at Auschwitz, which she dismissed as “bizarre propaganda.”

In response to backlash over her comments, Owens shot back at what she called the “Zionist media” for trying to censor her. “The reason why this particular episode is so detrimental to Zionism,” she wrote on X, “is because they have polluted American minds to believe that we must defend Israel out of morality and the evils of the Holocaust.”

“It is inexplicable to me how you stand by Israel, stand against antisemitism, and stand with the execrable Candace Owens,” Danielle Pletka, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said in an email to JI. “She is a Holocaust denier, an antisemite, and a loathsome bigot.”

Owens has also blamed rising antisemitism on “political Jews,” alleged that “secret Jewish gangs” are terrorizing Hollywood, liked a tweet claiming that Jews are “drunk on Christian blood” and defended Nick Fuentes, a prominent white nationalist and Holocaust denier.  

John Podhoretz, the editor of Commentary and a conservative critic of Trump, said the Owens event presented what he viewed as the campaign’s “first serious internal test” after the GOP convention in Milwaukee last week, where several speakers who have advanced antisemitic rhetoric were elevated to prime-time roles.

“That is, whether or not Candace Owens ends up on that stage on Friday,” he said in an interview with JI. “If she does, then it will demonstrate that it is a far less disciplined and far more chaotic effort and organization than it appears to have been over the last six or seven months, and morally, will represent an absolutely horrific stain,” which be said would be “completely self-inflicted.”

In an email to JI on Tuesday afternoon, Mitchell Jackson, who claimed to be a spokesperson for Owens, said it “was never announced Candace was hosting an event with the” Trump campaign. 

While Owens has long drawn controversy for promoting conspiracy theories, she has more recently faced criticism for advancing antisemitic commentary in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks.

In March, Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire announced that it had ended its relationship with Owens, who had served as a weekday host for the conservative media outlet.