President Donald Trump kicked off a firestorm by casually dropping an antisemitic slur while defending Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) over his history of suing patients.
At a Kansas rally on Monday, Trump addressed a New York Times report that Marshall sued more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills during his career as an obstetrician-gynecologist.
“You’re not allowed not to do it,” Trump told rallygoers. “You have to, by law, go after those people, and they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy. If he didn’t make these requests, he would be breaking the law.”
Trump drew criticism for using the term at an Iowa rally in July 2025. He later claimed he didn’t know it was considered antisemitic.
“I’ve never heard it that way. To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a moneylender at high rates,” he told reporters at the time.
Critics pounced and accused Trump and his defenders of holding a double standard on accusations of antisemitism.
“Oy vay iz mir,” groaned attorney George Conway.
“This isn’t true and is antisemitic,” stated Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov.
“Shylock. From the guy concerned about antisemitism,” sighed journalist Ray Locker.
“Can you imagine if Abdul El Sayed was going around calling people Shylock,” wondered journalist Zaid Jilani. “I think the ADL would shoot a cruise missile at him.”
“To translate: he’s saying they made Marshall look like a Jew by pointing out he sued his patients for unpaid bills,” pointed out The Bulwark’s Sam Stein.
“He’s used ‘Shylock’ like this repeatedly now, and it’s not because he’s familiar with Shakespeare,” observed election lawyer Andy Craig. “Guaranteed he picked up using it as a slur from his father because nobody younger than that says it.”
“This isn’t the first time he’s used Shylock,” noted journalist Joe Uchill. “ADL even demanded an apology earlier this term. So, it’s not like he’s unaware of the baggage the term carries.”
“Oh, this brings back memories of the summer of 2025 when I got into big arguments on here about Trump’s use of this particular slur,” recalled political theorist Jacob T. Levy. “I was told ‘no one still uses that as a slur, it’s too old-fashioned, so he must not have meant it,’ when… he’s a very old-fashioned bigot!”
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