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From The Hill: President Trump said he was unaware that the term “shylock” is considered antisemitic, after using it during his Iowa speech Thursday to describe lenders that add too many conditions on their loans.
Trump said he “never heard it that way” and did not recognize that it was an offensive term for Jewish people. The word comes from a Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” in which a Jewish lender requires a debtor hand over a pound of flesh as interest.
“No death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, shylocks and bad people,” Trump said. “They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite.”
His use of the term came during a speech celebrating the passage of his “big, beautiful bill,” which is full of his domestic priorities — from major spending cuts to tax breaks. The House and Senate, following weeks of infighting and debate, sent the legislation to Trump’s desk a day ahead of his self-imposed July 4 deadline. The president will sign the megabill into law Friday at the start of a Fourth of July picnic.
“To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a moneylender at high rates,” Trump told reporters.
“I’ve never heard it that way. You view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”
Trump says he wasn’t familiar with the word “Shylock” being a Jewish slur, says he thought it meant someone who lent money at exorbitant rates.
“You view it differently than me, I’ve never heard that.”
Follow: @AFpost
— AF Post (@AFpost) July 4, 2025
My take on the Shylock scam.
If you have to explain why a word is offensive, you can’t blame someone for using it. @POTUS asked me to run for Congress in part because he wanted another conservative Jew in Washington.
Donald Trump has done more for the American Jewish… pic.twitter.com/hPOZ1BO8oo
— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) July 5, 2025
President Donald Trump used an antisemitic term in his “Salute to America” speech in Des Moines. When asked about his use of the phrase, Trump said he was not aware of the connotation of the word. https://t.co/tfosQrdwEj
— WLUK-TV FOX 11 (@fox11news) July 4, 2025
READ MORE AT The Hill.
