U.S. President Donald Trump used an antisemitic stereotype in his special 4th of July speech, causing outrage. "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," he said touting is "One Big Beautiful," budget bill. "They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite."
Trump's use of Shakespeare's villainous Jewish moneylender from The Merchant of Venice prompted immediate anger among Jewish communities and responses on social media. The term Shylock has long been an antisemitic stereotype for the greedy, money grabbing and exploiting Jew.
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Al pacino the Merchant of Venice, Donald Trump
(Photo: Jim Watson, Shaul Beskin / AFP)
Trump claimed he had no idea that Shylock was an atisemitic trope. He told reporters on Air Force One that he had "never heard that" it could be considered antisemitic. "To me, a Shylock is somebody that's a money lender at high rates," he said.
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Trump spoke at an Iowa event marking the start of July 4th celebrations of 250 years of U.S. independence, in front of thousands of supporters. In a nearly hour-long speech, he touted his economic successes, attacked the media and the Democrat Party and promised that his new bill would "free" Americans from the "chains of taxes, bureaucracy and bad bankers."
The White House did not make any official comment on the incident and no official apology was issued, but sources in Trump's election headquarters said his comments were taken out of context.