President Donald Trump can no longer dodge and distract from the cold reality that his administration has granted a platform for white supremacists and anti-Semites to advance their twisted causes. His failure to lead has helped members of the “alt-right” expand their reach.

On Tuesday, Trump finally spoke out, but only after nearly 200 gravestones were overturned at a Jewish cemetery in University City. Nationwide, Jewish organizations are warning about a spike in bomb threats and harassment aimed at Jews.

“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community at community centers are horrible and are painful and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” Trump stated.

Hours earlier, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton prodded Trump to speak out about the University City attack, whose perpetrators and motives remain unknown.

Trump has inflicted serious damage upon himself with shoulder-shrugging responses to questions about anti-Semitism. Questioned last Wednesday about the failure of a White House statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day to mention the slaughter of 6 million Jews, Trump answered by reminding reporters of his Electoral College margin over Clinton.

The following day, Trump called on an Orthodox Jewish reporter during a news conference. The reporter questioned him about a nationwide rise in anti-Semitic attacks. Trump interrupted, ordered the reporter to “sit down” and “be quiet,” then declared himself to be “the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”

The president doth protest too much. Actions speak louder than words, and the most damaging action Trump has taken to undermine his “least anti-Semitic” title was to name Stephen K. Bannon as his chief White House strategist and member of the National Security Council. Before taking the job, Bannon headed Breitbart News, a website Bannon described last year as “the platform for the alt-right.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center defines the alt-right as “a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that ‘white identity’ is under attack by multicultural forces using ‘political correctness’ and ‘social justice’ to undermine white people and ‘their’ civilization.”

When Bannon left Breitbart, Milo Yiannopoulos took over as editor. Not once has the Trump administration challenged Breitbart’s alt-right alignment or urged the website to moderate its postings. But on Monday, the Conservative Political Action Conference did cancel a keynote address by Yiannopoulos — not for his advocacy of abhorrent right-wing views but because Yiannopoulos had recorded a video that favors loosening laws against pedophilia. Yiannopoulos resigned from Breitbart on Tuesday.

Against that backdrop, Trump’s belated condemnation of anti-Semitism rings hollow. The Anne Frank Center called it “pathetic.”

Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, has every reason to demand wider official acknowledgment that “anti-Semitism is alive and kicking.” Hate mongers will have a prominent friend as long as Trump keeps Bannon in the White House.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch