Discussions are reportedly taking place within Donald Trump's administration about the United States potentially granting asylum to Jewish people from the United Kingdom. The revelation comes from the president's personal lawyer, who claims the UK is no longer a safe environment for the Jewish community.
Lawyer Points to Rising Threat in Britain
Robert Garson, a 49-year-old former British barrister now serving as Trump's lawyer, told The Telegraph he has held conversations with the US State Department about offering refuge to British Jews who are leaving the UK. He cited rising antisemitism as the primary reason.
Garson stated he felt the UK was "no longer a safe place for Jews". He pointed to specific recent events, including 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. These incidents, he argued, mean British Jews should be given the option of sanctuary in the US.
In his interview, Garson placed significant blame on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, accusing him of allowing antisemitism to grow unchecked. "I can see no future for Jews in the UK," Garson asserted, adding that he had discussed this bleak outlook with people inside the Trump administration.
Demographics and a Controversial Proposal
Garson, who was appointed by Trump to the US Holocaust Memorial Council in May 2025, elaborated on why he believed offering asylum was a viable proposition. He described the British Jewish community as an attractive demographic for the US because "it is a highly educated community" that speaks English natively and, in his view, "doesn't have a high proportion of criminals."
He said he raised the idea directly with Trump's special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Yehuda Kaploun. This proposal emerges against a backdrop of the Trump administration's broader immigration plans. In October 2025, it announced an intention to restrict refugees admitted into the US in 2026 to just 7,500 spots, with those mostly reserved for white South Africans. It remains unclear how British Jews would factor into this strictly limited quota should the policy move forward.
Context of Fear and Political Tension
The lawyer's comments align with survey data indicating a sharp decline in feelings of safety among UK Jews. A 2025 survey by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research found 35% of Jews felt unsafe in Britain, a dramatic increase from 9% in 2023, before the Hamas attacks and the subsequent large-scale protests in Britain against Israel's military response in Gaza.
Perceptions of antisemitism as a "very big" problem have also intensified, rising to 47% in 2025 from just 11% in 2012. Some supporters of Israel in the UK have characterised the mass demonstrations, which protested the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza, as being motivated by antisemitism—a claim disputed by protest organisers.
Garson has previously expressed strong views on the protests. In a late 2023 US television interview, he labelled protesters in New York and Los Angeles as "marauding mobs" who were "masquerading as protesters" to shout what he called "antisemitic chants baying for Jewish blood."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the asylum discussions from The Guardian. The reported considerations highlight the deepening political and social divisions concerning the Israel-Gaza conflict and its reverberations in Western nations, potentially positioning the US as a sanctuary in a contentious international debate.
