INSULT TO INJURY

Trump Drops Vile Slur to Defend Floundering MAGA Senator

The president casually dropped an antisemitic insult while defending a Republican who could suffer a historic defeat in November.

Donald Trump dropped an antisemitic slur while defending Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas at a midterm campaign rally.

Speaking in Wichita on Monday night, the 80-year-old president used the term “Shylock,” a reference to the Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, who demands a “pound of flesh” from a character unable to repay a loan.

For centuries, the term has been used to perpetuate offensive stereotypes about Jewish people and money.

During the rally, Trump said Marshall was not a “Shylock-type guy” when he sued more than 700 of his own patients over outstanding bills during his decades-long career as an obstetrician-gynecologist.

“I have to say this. Somebody said, “Oh, don’t say it, nobody believes it,’ but I have to say it because I think it’s appropriate. Roger… he was given a bum rap, because he was mandated by law to request, strongly, money owed from patients,” Trump said.

“You have to, by law, go after those people. And they made it like, ‘oh, he was some kind of a Shylock type guy,’ and 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.

“So I don’t know if I should be saying it, but that’s the way it is,” Trump added. “Roger, I have to tell it like it is. You got screwed with that.”

THE MERCHANT OF MAR-A-LAGO

Trump Sparks Fury After Casually Dropping Antisemitic Slur

Josephine Harvey

Trump was supposed to be using the rally as an opportunity to boost Marshall’s re-election hopes. Multiple polls show the MAGA senator is trailing Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton, with the Nov. 3 midterms just weeks away. Kansas last elected a Democratic senator in 1932.

This is not the first time Trump has casually used the offensive term in a speech.

In July 2025, Trump used the term during a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, while praising his “Big Beautiful” spending bill.

“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,” the president said.

Trump later pleaded ignorance about the term’s antisemitic connotations, claiming he was not using it in an offensive way.

“The meaning of Shylock is somebody that’s a moneylender at high rates,” Trump told reporters. “You view it differently. I’ve never heard that.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned the president for using an antisemitic term about “Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous” at the Iowa rally.

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“President Trump’s use of the term is very troubling and irresponsible,” the ADL posted on X. “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 Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.

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