Hillary Clinton slams Donald Trump over his use of 'blatantly anti-Semitic' image

Mr Trump continued to defend his controversial tweet, claiming the six-pointed star resembling a Star of David was in fact 'a sheriff’s star, or a plain star'

Sarah Bard, the Clinton campaign’s Director of Jewish Outreach, said Mr Trump was 'offering campaign behavior and rhetoric that engages extremists' (Reuters)

Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has slammed Donald Trump for “engaging extremists”, after the presumptive Republican nominee attempted to defend himself for tweeting a “blatantly anti-Semitic” image.

On Saturday, Mr Trump tweeted a meme featuring an image of Ms Clinton, his Democratic rival, overlaid on piles of 100-dollar bills alongside a red, six-pointed star containing the phrase “Most corrupt candidate ever!”

Commentators noted that the star was shaped like the Star of David, with critics claiming the meme could be construed as anti-Semitic. The website Mic reported that the meme had previously appeared on a notorious white supremacist web forum.

The Trump campaign deleted the offending tweet and replaced it with a new image, in which the star had been turned into a simple red circle, but on Monday Mr Trump continued to defend the original star image on Twitter, blaming the controversy on the media and claiming the six-pointed star was “a sheriff’s star, or a plain star”.

Sarah Bard, the Clinton campaign’s Director of Jewish Outreach, said in a statement that the property mogul had used “a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist websites to promote his campaign.”

She went on: “Now, not only won't he apologise 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.”

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian presidential nominee, said at the weekend that Mr Trump was “clearly” racist. Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Mr Johnson referred to a recent Trump town hall event in New Hampshire, where the presumptive GOP nominee fielded a question from a woman who urged him to replace Muslim TSA employees with military veterans, describing the hijab headscarves worn by some Muslim women as “heebiejabis”.

Mr Trump replied: “We are looking at that.”

“He has said 100 things that would disqualify anyone else from running for president but doesn’t seem to affect him,” said Mr Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico. “That statement in and of itself—it’s racist.”

Asked whether he thought the presumptive Republican nominee was himself racist, Mr Johnson replied: “Based on his statements, clearly… The stuff he’s saying is just incendiary.”