Discussions are reportedly under way within Donald Trump’s administration about the US possibly granting asylum to Jewish people from the UK, according to the Telegraph, citing the US president’s personal lawyer.
Trump lawyer Robert Garson told the newspaper that he has held conversations with the US state department about offering refuge to British Jews who are leaving the UK citing rising antisemitism. Garson, 49, a former British barrister who relocated to the US in 2008, said he felt the UK was “no longer a safe place for Jews”.
He added that recent events – namely an Islamist attack on a synagogue in Manchester and what he described as widespread antisemitism following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 – had led him to believe that British Jews should be given the option of sanctuary in the US. Garson placed much of the responsibility on to British prime minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of allowing antisemitism to grow.
A 2025 survey by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found that feelings of safety in the UK’s Jewish community have declined sharply, with 35% feeling unsafe in 2025 compared with 9% in 2023. Perceptions of antisemitism had also intensified, with 47% of British Jews seeing it as a “very big” problem, up from 11% in 2012.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. In October, the Trump administration announced plans to restrict refugee admissions to 7,500 in 2026, mostly reserved for white South Africans. It was not immediately clear how British Jews would factor into that figure.
