{"id":92922,"date":"2026-06-18T22:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T03:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/?p=92922"},"modified":"2026-06-19T18:53:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T23:53:40","slug":"trump-nominee-defends-college-cartoon-of-jewish-student-with-devil-horns-at-senate-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/trump-nominee-defends-college-cartoon-of-jewish-student-with-devil-horns-at-senate-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump nominee defends college cartoon of Jewish student with devil horns at Senate hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG<\/p>\n

(JTA) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s pick for general counsel of the agency that oversees federal workers\u2019 labor rights testified in Congress on Wednesday that he does not believe a cartoon he published in college that depicted a Jewish student with devil horns was antisemitic.<\/p>\n

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Charlton Allen testifies in the U.S. Senate at his confirmation hearing. (C-SPAN)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Charlton Allen appeared at the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs for his confirmation hearing Wednesday afternoon. There, Sen. Ruben Gallego, the Arizona Democrat, pressed him about the cartoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look behind me, you\u2019ll see the front cover of an edition of the Carolina Review depicting Aaron Nelson, a Jewish candidate for student body president. Your magazine altered Nelson\u2019s photo depicting him with the horns and a pitchfork. Inside the article says, \u2018The difference between Aaron Nelson is simple. He\u2019s Jewish.\u2019\u201d Gallego said. \u201cYes or no, Mr. Nelson. Do you stand by this depiction?\u201d<\/p>\n

The cartoon ignited a firestorm when it was published in the Carolina Review, a campus conservative magazine that Allen founded as an undergraduate at UNC. The magazine\u2019s faculty advisor said he resigned after it went to print against his advice, and nearly two dozen Jewish faculty members pressed UNC\u2019s chancellor to denounce the cartoon and censure the magazine, which he did.<\/p>\n

Allen fended off allegations of antisemitism at the time and again during a 2014 hearing to confirm him for a position in North Carolina. He did so again on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not say that it\u2019s antisemitic,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were the group that was calling for the equal treatment of all student religions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were 30 years ago advocating for The Review, I would say, \u2018don\u2019t run that cover,\u2019\u201d he testified. \u201cI think it was a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to reports from the time, Nelson had been accused by the Carolina Review of discriminating against a Christian campus group by voting not to fund it. He had voted in favor of funding a \u201cmajority\u201d of other campus Christian groups while he was a representative in the student congress.<\/p>\n

Facing backlash, Allen denied at the time that the depiction of Nelson with horns was meant to channel longstanding antisemitic stereotypes.<\/p>\n

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A copy of the 1996 ‘Carolina Review’ cover that depicted a Jewish candidate for student body president with a pitchfork and devil horns is brought out at the Senate confirmation hearing for Charlton Allen. (C-SPAN)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CA\u201cOur cartoonist lampooned [Nelson] as such because her perception was that Aaron was evil,\u201d Allen told the Duke Chronicle in April 1996. \u201cNewspapers in the past few weeks have run cartoons lampooning public figures such as Gingrich, Pat Buchanan and even myself as \u2018devils\u2019 with horns and pitchforks. Where\u2019s the public outcry over these cartoons?\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Allen offered a slightly different explanation. He said the picture was meant to channel UNC\u2019s historic and enduring rivalry with nearby Duke University, whose mascot is the \u201cBlue Devil.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cartoonist\u2019s intention was to make an analogy to that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2014, during his confirmation hearing ahead of his appointment for commissioner of the state Industrial Commission of North Carolina, Allen addressed criticisms of the cartoon by saying his grandfather had helped to liberate Jews in Europe from concentration camps during World War II, the Indy Week reported at the time.<\/p>\n

Trump nominated Allen to the Office of the Special Council \u2014 the agency that protects whistleblowers from unlawful conduct \u2014 in May 2025 but withdrew the nomination less than a week later. In September, he nominated Allen to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.<\/p>\n

Nelson, meanwhile, won the election handily to become UNC\u2019s student body president. Now president of The Chamber, Chapel Hill\u2019s chamber of commerce, Nelson did not respond to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests for comment.<\/p>\n

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