President Donald Trump used an antisemitic term as he defended Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall against criticism over medical billing practices Monday, a slur he has used publicly at least once before.
Trump invoked the term “Shylock” while defending Marshall’s suing more than 700 patients for outstanding medical bills during his time as an obstetrician-gynecologist, as first reported by The New York Times.
“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 a rally in Kansas. “If he didn’t make these requests, he would be breaking the law. He would have been breaking a very strong criminal law, and he would be subject to criminal arrest and liability.”
Trump has previously faced criticism for using the term. In July 2025, he said it during a rally in Iowa. He later claimed he didn’t know the word was viewed by some as antisemitic.
“I’ve never heard it that way. To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates,” Trump told reporters at the time. “I’ve never heard it that way, you view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”
The Anti-Defamation League last year condemned the use of the word by Trump, calling it “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 ADL wrote in a post at the time.
In 2014, former President Joe Biden apologized for using the word.
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