Donald Trump has been accused of “blatant and vile antisemitism” at a rally in Iowa.
The president delivered a campaign-style speech during the America250 event at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines on Thursday, just hours after the House passed his signature tax-and-spending bill on the eve of the country’s 250th birthday.
As Trump promised that his megabill would usher in a period of prosperity, the president railed against “Shylocks” and “bad people,” before taking a swipe at the Democrats who uniformly opposed the legislation.
“No death tax. No estate tax,” Trump began. “No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, Shylocks and bad people.”
“They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite,” he added.
The term ‘Shylock’ comes from the character in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. In the play Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, agrees with another character to take a “pound of flesh” if he can’t repay his loan. The term was later considered offensive because it plays on harmful stereotypes of Jewish people and money.
While flying back to Washington, D.C., on board Air Force One, the president said he had “never heard that” the word could be considered antisemitic and opted to give his own definition of the phrase.
“I’ve never heard it that way,” he said. “The meaning of Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates. You view it differently. I’ve never heard that.”
Jewish leaders have condemned the president’s rhetoric and claimed his use of the slur was “no accident.”
“This is blatant and vile antisemitism, and Trump knows exactly what he’s doing,” New York Representative Daniel Goldman wrote on X late Thursday. “Anyone who truly opposes antisemitism calls it out wherever it occurs – on both extremes – as I do.”
California Representative Eric Swalwell called on the Anti-Defamation League to take action, adding that if they “cannot condemn this, they should pack it up.”
“Shylock is among the most quintessential antisemitic stereotypes,” Amy Spitalnick of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs tweeted. “This is not an accident.”
Halie Soifer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America said Trump “referred to bankers using a centuries-old antisemitic slur.”
Former President Joe Biden faced backlash after using the same word at a Legal Services Corporation event, describing “shylocks” taking advantage of servicemembers facing foreclosures while overseas.
Unlike Trump, Biden apologized for his “poor choice of words” after the ADL’s Abraham Foxman urged caution about the use of the term.
It’s not the first time critics have accused Trump, who positions himself as a staunch ally of Israel, of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes. His comment comes ahead of Trump’s meeting with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week.
In 2015, Trump repeatedly told the Republican Jewish Coalition that he did not want their money and promoted memes with antisemitic symbols, according to the Washington Post.
The Independent has contacted the White House for more information.