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Dan Bilzerian says he is criticising Israel. In 2011, he was already blaming Jews for 9/11

From poker to a Florida primary, what Dan Bilzerian has said about Jews and the Holocaust, as documented in broadcasts and archival material.

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Dan Bilzerian in 2019 (video still)
Dan Bilzerian in 2019 (video still). Photo: FILMORA NEWS, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On 12 November 2024, Piers Morgan asked Dan Bilzerian how many people he believed had been killed in the Holocaust. The American began by talking about Auschwitz. Morgan repeated his question. The poker player then said he would wager his entire fortune that the number was below six million. Two months later the Jewish Chronicle reported more than two million YouTube views for a 33-minute clip. 367

In 2026, Bilzerian ran for Congress. His platform called for an end to American foreign aid and to what he claimed was Jewish supremacy. Yet the first collective accusation documented here dates to 2011, when he was known chiefly in poker circles 1341113.

A poker player and a post from 2011

In Las Vegas in 2009, Bilzerian finished 180th in the World Series of Poker Main Event and won $36,626. Four years later, footage from the same competition made him recognisable far beyond the poker tables. In the background of the broadcast, a woman was stroking his beard. The clip spread online. Cars, guns and photographs of him with women in swimwear subsequently helped build his public persona on Instagram 123.

Before playing poker, Bilzerian served in the US Navy and trained to become a Navy SEAL but did not qualify. His father, Paul Bilzerian, was in the corporate takeover business. In 1989, a US federal court convicted Paul Bilzerian of securities fraud. The tournament results document the son’s winnings. The criminal case concerns his father. US Justice Department account of the conviction 123

On 21 July 2011, UTC, Dan Bilzerian wrote on Twitter: “Heading to LA, thinking about driving in case the jews repeat their attacks of 9/11”. The possessive their attributes the attacks to Jews. The federal investigation identified the 19 hijackers trained by al-Qaeda. A copy of the tweet archived as early as 2019 shows what Bilzerian was writing 12 years before the Hamas attack of 7 October 2023. Archived tweet · FBI investigation 34

In 2024, a debate about US aid turns into a collective accusation

On YouTube on 16 August 2024, Patrick Bet-David asked Bilzerian about poker and Washington’s alliance with Israel. In episode 457 of his podcast, Bilzerian said: “My issue is our support of Israel.” In the same interview, he made a different kind of allegation about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: “I think they had JFK assassinated.” Among other things, he cited the surname of Jack Ruby, the man who killed Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. Three months later, Morgan asked what evidence he had for implicating Israel. Nothing Bilzerian presented establishes the responsibility he attributes to Israel. An archived copy of the episode page dated 22 August already shows over a million views. Archived view count · Original episode 3457

On 17 October 2024, Bilzerian opened a poll on X with “Who causes the majority of the worlds problems, the”. Four buttons offered ways to finish the sentence. The options named Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews, each preceded by a population figure. “16 million Jews” finished far ahead. No option allowed respondents to reject the premise that a religious population should be held responsible for the world’s problems. Original poll 3

A historical precedent helps explain how the question works. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in the Russian Empire’s press in 1903, purport to record secret meetings of Jewish leaders. Those meetings were invented. The text attributes to them a plan to seize control of the press, finance and governments. In the United States, Henry Ford’s newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, spread accusations drawn from the forgery. The parallel with the poll concerns a specific idea: holding a people collectively responsible for the world’s misfortunes. The remarks quoted here do not establish that Bilzerian read the book. See our features on the making of the Protocols and their promotion in the United States by Henry Ford 4913.

On Piers Morgan’s show, a wager on the number of victims

On Piers Morgan Uncensored, broadcast on YouTube on 12 November 2024, Morgan recalled the murder of six million Jews and asked his guest what he meant by revising the toll. After initially focusing on Auschwitz, Bilzerian replied: “I don’t know, but I would bet my entire net worth that it was under 6 million.” He added that he was thinking as a gambler. Morgan asked what justified reducing the number of victims and challenged him with evidence of the genocide. It was the number of Jews murdered that Bilzerian was questioning. Holocaust discussion, chapter beginning at 21:45 36713

The confusion between the death toll at Auschwitz and that of the Holocaust has a specific history. In 1945, a Soviet commission estimated that four million people had been murdered at the complex. Subsequent research, drawing in particular on deportation transports, established that about 1.1 million people were killed there, roughly one million of them Jews. For Europe as a whole, historians compare German archives with pre-war and post-war demographic studies and with documents left by the victims. These sources include records of mass shootings in Eastern Europe, killings at other extermination centres and deaths in the ghettos. The European toll of about six million includes entire families shot near their homes who never passed through Auschwitz. Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum on the number of victims 8

The broadcast also drew objections within the group that aired it. On 9 January 2025, the Jewish Chronicle published screenshots of messages from members of News UK’s Jewish staff network. One criticised the programme for having no specialist on the show. Another expressed concern about comments from viewers who agreed with the guest. The Jewish Chronicle reported 2.4 million views for the 33-minute clip on YouTube 6. A copy of the YouTube page archived the following day also displayed 2.4 million in abbreviated form. That count covered the whole clip. It tells us neither how many people watched the Holocaust discussion nor what proportion agreed with Bilzerian. YouTube page as of 10 January 2025 67

On 31 January 2025, Bilzerian asked on X: “I’ve been seeing a lot talk about Hitler recently, do you think he was”. The options included “A Terrible person” and “A Good person”. About a third of the roughly 178,000 votes went to the second of those answers. The people who chose to participate were not a representative sample of X users. Original poll 3

In Florida, the language enters an election platform

On TMZ Live on 8 April 2026, Harvey Levin and Charles Latibeaudiere asked Bilzerian how he had referred to Randy Fine, the Jewish congressman he was challenging in the Republican primary for Florida’s 6th District. On 1 April, he had called Fine “This fat jew” on X. Asked to explain, he stood by the wording and rejected the description of himself as antisemitic: “No, I’m not antisemitic.” At the time, nearly 30 million accounts followed him on Instagram. He entered the campaign with an audience largely assembled before he stood for office. Post of 1 April · TMZ interview 131014

His campaign platform allows two pledges to be compared. In the version archived on 17 August 2026, the second point began “End all foreign aid.” The eighth was headed “End Jewish Supremacy”. The paragraph that followed accused specifically Jewish interests of leading the country to ruin. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) identified this passage in its study of the election cycle and linked it to his remarks on Morgan’s programme in 2024. Archived platform 1113

On 17 August, 15 Jewish Democratic members of Congress issued a joint statement about a Bilzerian campaign video targeting Fine. It showed the congressman clutching a bag of money. An image of Hitler accompanied part of the song. By 17 August, The Times of Israel was reporting over a million views. The signatories recalled their public disagreements with Fine and their condemnation of his remarks about Muslims. They asked the platforms to take down the video and his opponent’s earlier antisemitic posts. On 18 August, Republican voters chose between the candidates. Bilzerian received 16,776 votes, or 18.9%, to Fine’s 51,109 and 57.6%. A ballot records a vote for a candidate. It does not say what the voter thought of the eighth point in his platform. Report on the video, 17 August 121415

Chronology

  • 2011-07-21 (UTC) — On Twitter, he blames Jews for 9/11 4.
  • 2024-08-16 — Patrick Bet-David’s podcast airs its interview with him about poker and Israel 35.
  • 2024-10-17 — His poll on X asks users to name a population responsible for the world’s problems 3.
  • 2024-11-12 — On YouTube, he disputes the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust in an interview with Piers Morgan 37.
  • 2026-04-08 — On TMZ Live, he rejects the accusation of antisemitism 310.
  • 2026-08-17 — Jewish lawmakers call for a video to be taken down. 2026-08-18 — Randy Fine wins the primary 121415.

What this tells us

A young viewer could have discovered Bilzerian through poker, followed him for his photos and found a poll on the same account asking which people to blame. On X, choosing any of the four options in the October poll meant accepting its premise. On Morgan’s show, the interviewer’s follow-up established what Bilzerian meant by his answer about the Holocaust. In Florida, the theme of Jewish supremacy took a more lasting form: a written pledge put before voters 135671113.

Sources

  1. Chris Ayres, « The truth about Dan Bilzerian », British GQ, numéro de février 2015, édition en ligne du 19 juillet 2017, https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-truth-about-dan-bilzerian
  2. World Series of Poker, « Dan Bilzerian », fiche officielle et résultat du tournoi principal de 2009, https://www.wsop.com/players/739051001/dan-bilzerian/
  3. Joseph Strauss, « Dan Bilzerian wants to ‘kill Israelis’ and thinks Judaism is ‘terrible.’ Now he’s running for Congress », Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 10 avril 2026, https://www.jta.org/2026/04/10/politics/dan-bilzerian-wants-to-kill-israelis-and-thinks-judaism-is-terrible-now-hes-running-for-congress
  4. Eliana Jordan, « How ‘masculinity’ influencer Dan Bilzerian fell down a ‘brazenly antisemitic’ rabbit hole », The Jewish Chronicle, 14 novembre 2024, https://www.thejc.com/news/features/how-masculinity-influencer-dan-bilzerian-fell-down-a-brazenly-antisemitic-rabbit-hole-does360z
  5. Patrick Bet-David, « An Extreme Lifestyle », PBD Podcast, épisode 457, YouTube, 16 août 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTQmJt86h9I
  6. Jacob Jaffa, « News UK Jewish employees ‘deeply upset’ by ‘extreme antisemitism’ on Piers Morgan Uncensored », The Jewish Chronicle, 9 janvier 2025, https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/news-uk-jewish-employees-extreme-antisemitism-piers-morgan-rgbrr8k4
  7. Piers Morgan, « “BRAZEN Antisemite!” Piers Morgan CALLS OUT Dan Bilzerian », Piers Morgan Uncensored, YouTube, 12 novembre 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KICYv4O03CA
  8. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, « How Many People Did the Nazis Murder? », Holocaust Encyclopedia, 26 septembre 2023, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution
  9. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, « An Antisemitic Conspiracy: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion », Holocaust Encyclopedia, 23 avril 2026, https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion
  10. Rédaction de TMZ, « Dan Bilzerian Defends Calling Congressional Opponent ‘Fat Jew,’ Drops N-Word », TMZ Live, 8 avril 2026, https://www.tmz.com/2026/04/08/dan-bilzerian-uses-n-word-while-announcing-congressional-run/
  11. Dan Bilzerian for Congress, « Dan’s Plan », programme de la primaire de 2026, version attestée le 17 août 2026, https://www.bilzerianforcongress.com/dans-plan/
  12. Jake Auchincloss et quatorze autres députés, « Jewish Members of Congress Condemn Antisemitic Attacks in Florida Republican Primary », bureau de Brad Sherman, 17 août 2026, https://sherman.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/jewish-members-congress-condemn-antisemitic-attacks-florida-republican
  13. Anti-Defamation League, « Antisemitic Themes Punctuate the 2026 Election Cycle Nationwide », 18 août 2026, mise à jour du 4 novembre 2026, https://www.adl.org/resources/article/antisemitic-themes-punctuate-2026-election-cycle-nationwide
  14. Ben Sales, « Trounced in Florida GOP primary, antisemitic candidates believe ‘victory’ is still near », The Times of Israel, 20 août 2026, https://www.timesofisrael.com/trounced-in-florida-gop-primary-antisemitic-candidates-believe-victory-is-still-near/
  15. Florida Department of State, Division of Elections, « United States Representative, District 6, Republican Primary — Official Results », 18 août 2026, https://results.elections.myflorida.com/DetailRpt.Asp?ELECTIONDATE=8/18/2026&RACE=USR&PARTY=REP&DIST=006&GRP=&DATAMODE=

The story in 30 seconds

Read the main facts at a glance and share the link.

  1. As early as July 2011, Dan Bilzerian blamed Jews for the 9/11 attacks in a Twitter post.
  2. On 12 November 2024, Bilzerian told Piers Morgan he would bet his entire fortune that fewer than six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
  3. On 18 August 2026, he received 18.9% of the vote in the Republican primary for Florida’s 6th District. Randy Fine won with 57.6%.
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