NEW YORK — Vice President JD Vance will hit a key hurdle in his fence-mending effort with Jewish Republicans on Thursday when he hosts a popular conservative radio host at the White House.
77 WABC host Sid Rosenberg, a longtime friend and ardent ally of President Donald Trump, has publicly attacked Vance for maintaining a friendship with Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News personality accused of invoking antisemitic tropes in criticizing Israel.
Rosenberg, who’s known for making inflammatory remarks, has also taken aim at Vance for what he sees as the vice president’s lack of commitment to a “strong” U.S. alliance with Israel.
In an interview Wednesday with POLITICO, Rosenberg said he plans to grill Vance in person about both Carlson and U.S. aid for Israel at a meeting he described as coming at Vance’s request. And while he said the main purpose of Thursday’s meeting is to get to know Vance, he noted that he’ll raise his concerns to the vice president in the context of his most pressing political priority: His likely 2028 run for president.
“If he really wants to win in ‘28, he has no choice but to, at the very least, distance himself from [Carlson] if not completely disavow him,” Rosenberg said, adding that he believes the vice president “has pissed off the Jews and many Trump supporters.”
Describing distrust of Vance in right-leaning Jewish communities as “a big problem,” Rosenberg said he’ll ask the vice president to commit to steering clear of Carlson and continue significant U.S. support for Israel if elected president.
“I hope I can get some of those commitments. Do I think I can get it? I don’t know,” Rosenberg said. He added that he expects to meet with Trump in the Oval Office after his sit-down with Vance.
As the front-runner for the Republican Party’s 2028 presidential nomination, Vance’s tense relationship with Israel’s supporters in the GOP could become a serious liability. Major Republican donors have already said they would be reluctant to financially boost Vance’s presidential run because of his views on Israel, a sharp departure from how Trump has held a commanding grip in that realm, thanks in large part to his alliance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In that light, Vance’s meeting with Rosenberg — who has known Trump since at least 2018 — takes on outsize significance. It also comes after Vance extended an olive branch earlier this month at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s leadership summit in Las Vegas, where he voiced concern about antisemitic hate crimes and said working with Israel is “in the best interest of the United States.” Vance touched on Carlson at that summit as well, acknowledging that “people in this room may disagree” with things he’s said, but the vice president avoided discussing his relationship with him.
Just days after that appearance, however, Vance ignited criticism from pro-Israel Republicans again by saying in a speech that the U.S. cannot allow its Middle East policy approach to be “subservient to the State of Israel.”
Asked about Rosenberg’s comments ahead of their White House meeting, a Vance spokesperson said Wednesday that the vice president would be meeting with the radio host after they didn’t meet in Las Vegas.
“The Vice President was unfortunately not able to meet with him in Las Vegas during the RJC Leadership Summit, and of course wanted to make time to meet with him in Washington,” the spokesperson said.
Rosenberg, a former sports commentator who now runs his own political radio show “Sid & Friends in the Morning” in New York City, confirmed Vance’s team asked for Thursday’s meeting. And despite his concerns about Vance’s Israel posture, he called the vice president an “affable” and “smart” person who’s “capable of the job.”
Still, Rosenberg made clear he doesn’t view Vance as the strongest Republican contender for president in 2028.
“He’s not my first choice. I’m a Marco guy,” Rosenberg said, referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who’s also rumored as a possible 2028 candidate. “If it turns out Marco doesn’t run, and JD wins the primary, in the end, if JD is the last man standing, I will support him.”
Rosenberg’s influence remains mostly limited to the relatively small world of Republican politics in deep-blue New York. Still, his friendship with Trump has elevated him as a voice on the right, even as he’s attracted his share of controversy.
In March, Rosenberg called Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s first Muslim mayor, an “America hating, Jew hating, Radical Islam cockroach” while voicing displeasure with Trump’s surprisingly cordial interactions with Mamdani. After drawing intense pushback from voices across the aisle, Rosenberg apologized to Mamdani for the harsh remark, saying it was a “bit over the top” and admitting it’s “not nice to call somebody a bug.”
Rosenberg also came under intense fire earlier this year for calling Mamdani “a terrorist” — and apologized for that remark too. But he later retracted that apology, saying he was “exactly right” to use the term.
With additional reporting by Alex Gangitano