Jewish advocacy groups slammed President Donald Trump for using an anti-Semitic descriptor on Thursday during his Iowa speech celebrating the passage of his spending bill.
Trump used the term “Shylocks,” which evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jewish people and greed, to talk about the tax changes in the bill.
“No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and bar exam from, in some cases a fine banker, and in some cases Shylocks and bad people, but they took away a lot of family. They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite,” he told the crowd.
Shylock is a reference to the name of the Jewish moneylender and villain in playwright William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” who demands a “pound of flesh” from protagonist Antonio.
The Anti-Defamation League on Friday morning criticized the president, reiterating that the term is “extremely offensive and dangerous.”
“President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible. It underscores how lies and conspiracies about Jews remain deeply entrenched in our country. Words from our leaders matter and we expect more from the President of the United States,” the organization said in a statement.
Amy Spitalnick, the CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, also condemned Trump’s comments, saying in a statement it was one of “the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes.”
“This is not an accident. It follows years in which Trump has normalized antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories — and it’s deeply dangerous,” she added.
Trump was asked about his use of the word after he returned to Washington D.C. early Friday. The president, who has made combating antisemitism in schools a priority in his administration, claimed he has “never heard it that way.”
“To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates. I’ve never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that,” Trump claimed.
This is not the first time that an executive branch member came under fire for using the term.
In 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden took heat for using the term during the 40th anniversary celebration of the Legal Services Corporation, referring to predatory bankers as “these Shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas.”
Biden apologized after then-Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman criticized the use of the term.
“He’s correct, it was a poor choice of words, particularly as he said coming from ‘someone as friendly to the Jewish community and open and tolerant an individual as is Vice President Joe Biden.’ He’s right,” Biden said in a statement.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel contributed to this report.
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