Donald Trump is pleading ignorance after using an antisemitic slur at a rally on Thursday.
In his speech at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa Trump used the word “shylock” while touting aspects of the massive domestic policy bill that passed Congress earlier.
“Think of that, no death tax, no estate tax, no going to the banks and borrowings from in some cases a fine banker. And in some cases, Shylocks and bad people,” he said. “They took away a lot of, a lot of family. They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite.”
‘Shylock’ was the greedy and vengeful Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice who demanding a “pound of flesh” from the merchant Antonio if he failed to repay a loan.
According to the Anti Defamation League the term ‘Shylock’ “evokes a centuries-old antisemitic trope about Jews and greed that is extremely offensive and dangerous.”
“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 added.
On Friday, Trump claims he was unaware that some people view the word ‘Shylock’ 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. “I’ve never heard it that way, you view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.”
In 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden also used the term ‘Shylocks’ to refer to bank representatives and moneylenders who were haggling people serving the United States overseas. He later apologized for his “poor choice of words” after he was called out by the ADL.
