US President Donald Trump has faced renewed criticism after using the term “Shylock” during a rally in Kansas while defending Republican Senator Roger Marshall against Democratic campaign ads targeting his handling of overdue medical debts.
The term, which carries antisemitic associations rooted in stereotypes of Jewish people as unscrupulous moneylenders, prompted criticism from former lawmakers and Jewish advocacy groups.
Trump used the word on Monday night while responding to advertisements criticising Marshall, a physician, over aggressive efforts to collect small medical debts from patients at his medical practice. “You’re not allowed not to do it. You have to, by law, go after those people, and they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” Trump said at the rally.
According to reports, Marshall sued more than 700 patients for outstanding medical bills during his time as an obstetrician-gynecologist.
He argued that Marshall would have violated the law if he had failed to pursue the payments, adding that the senator could otherwise have faced criminal arrest and liability.
The remarks drew criticism from opponents and commentators, some of whom argued that Trump’s use of the term was particularly troubling because he had previously faced backlash for using the same word.
Former Lawmakers Condemn Trump’s Remarks
Barbara Comstock, a former Congresswoman from Virginia, criticised the President’s comments, saying that Trump had once again used antisemitic rhetoric while attempting to defend Marshall. “Trump once again lets loose his anti-Semitic rhetoric,” Comstock said, describing the remarks as “a bizarre defense of” the Kansas Senator.
Joe Walsh, a former Congressman from Illinois, also criticised Trump’s use of the term in a social media post. “Trump publicly used the antisemitic term again,” Walsh wrote, predicting that “no one on the right” would condemn the President’s remarks.
The criticism follows an earlier controversy last year, when Trump used the same word during an event in Iowa. Speaking to reporters at the time, he denied being aware of its antisemitic associations.
“I’ve 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.”
Donald Trump
The character Shylock appears in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and has become associated with longstanding stereotypes portraying Jewish people as exploitative moneylenders.
Critics say the term carries historical baggage beyond its literal reference to lending money, making its use particularly contentious in political discourse.
In 2014, former President Joe Biden apologized for using the word.
Jewish Groups Warn Against Normalising Antisemitic Stereotypes
Amy Spitalnick, Head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, said that Trump’s repeated use of the term after previously being criticised for it suggested that the latest incident was not accidental.
In a social media post, Spitalnick said the President had “consistently normalized antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which condemned Trump’s use of the word last year, also responded to the latest remarks in a post on X on Tuesday.
The organisation described the term as “rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype”, warning that its use could reinforce harmful perceptions of Jewish people regardless of the speaker’s intentions.
“Regardless of intent, its use can reinforce harmful tropes about Jews and normalize language that has long been used to target the Jewish community,” the ADL wrote.
The renewed criticism places the president’s remarks within a broader debate about antisemitic language and the impact of historically discriminatory stereotypes when used by public figures.
Campaigns Intensify Amid Early Voting
Trump’s comments came as political campaigning intensifies ahead of the US midterm elections, with early voting already underway across dozens of states.
More than 10 million voters have cast ballots so far, according to the figures provided, as Hawaii, Louisiana, Missouri, Utah and Wisconsin begin in-person early voting.
California has recorded the highest number of ballots cast, at approximately 1.4 million, followed by Georgia with more than one million and Florida with more than 800,000.
Overall, the early-voting total stands at about 18 per cent of the total early votes cast in the 2022 midterm elections, the figures indicate.
The controversy over Trump’s remarks has emerged against this electoral backdrop, as the President’s comments draw condemnation from former lawmakers and Jewish advocacy organisations.
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