President Donald Trump claims that when he used the term “shylock” to characterize dishonest moneylenders in a speech, he was unaware that it was antisemitic.
After returning from an event in Iowa, Trump told reporters early on Friday that he had never heard the term used in that manner and that it was regarded as an unpleasant stereotype about Jews.
In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, the evil Jewish moneylender Shylock wants a pound of flesh from a debtor.
According to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights antisemitism, the term conjures up a dangerous and highly insulting antisemitic stereotype about Jews and greed that dates back hundreds of years. The term’s use by President Trump is extremely concerning and careless.
A day after using the term in speech to a legal aid organization, Democratic vice president Joe Biden stated in 2014 that he had made a bad word choice.
The Trump administration has prioritized combating antisemitism. The White House’s claims that Harvard University has condoned antisemitism have been at the heart of his administration’s battle with the university, which says it is checking for antisemitic conduct when awarding immigration benefits.
However, the Republican president has a history of using anti-Semitic prejudices.
In 2015, he said at the Republican Jewish Coalition, “You want to control your politicians,” and implied that the audience used money to do so.
Trump received a lot of backlash for dining at his Florida club with a white nationalist who denied the Holocaust before he officially launched his 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump often accused Democratic-affiliated Jewish Americans of being disloyal last year due to the Democratic leaders’ criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to critics, it reinforced the antisemitic stereotype that Jews have conflicting allegiances and that there is only one correct way to be Jewish.
Trump used the phrase at his speech in Iowa on Thursday night when discussing his flagship legislation that Congress had passed earlier in the day.
He claimed there would be no estate tax, no death tax, and no going to the banks to borrow money from, sometimes a good banker and other times shylocks and horrible individuals.
Trump responded, “No, I’ve never heard it that way,” when a reporter subsequently questioned him about the word’s antisemitic connotations and his intentions. A shylock, in my opinion, is someone who charges exorbitant interest rates for loans. That’s not how I’ve ever heard it. I see it differently than you do. I haven’t heard that before.
Trump’s usage of the term, according to the Anti-Defamation League, highlights how deeply ingrained anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and lies are in our nation. We expect more from the President of the United States, and our leaders’ words count.
