President Donald Trump revived a controversial slur on Monday, deploying the anti-Semitic term “Shylock” at a Kansas rally while shielding Sen. Roger Marshall from scrutiny over his medical billing record. The remark, condemned swiftly by Jewish organizations, is the second time in roughly a year that Trump has publicly used the word.
Donald Trump uses anti-Semitic term while defending senator’s lawsuit
Trump made the comment while addressing criticism of Marshall, who sued more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills during his years as an obstetrician-gynecologist. “You’re not allowed not to do it. You have to, by law, go after those people, and they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” Donald Trump told the crowd. “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.”
Legal experts dispute that framing. Lawrence Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law School, said Marshall had discretion: “He’s entitled to sue for unpaid bills but not required to do so” (via CNN). Furthermore, the Anti-Defamation League, which criticized Trump for the same word last year, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “Shylock is rooted in a longstanding anti-Semitic stereotype.”
Even Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, rejected any suggestion of ignorance. She noted on X that Trump faced public criticism for the term in July 2025, when he used it at an Iowa rally and later told reporters he had never heard the word described as anti-Semitic.
“Tonight Trump yet again used the anti-Semitic ‘Shylock’ — a year after he was called out for doing so and claimed he didn’t know it was problematic,” Spitalnick said. “Again: not an accident. He has consistently normalized anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and tropes.”
