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.
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.
