After lambasting ‘shylocks’ in tax cuts speech, Trump says he didn’t know term was antisemitic

US President Donald Trump says he didn’t know that the term “shylock” has antisemitic connotations, after he lambasted “shylocks and bad people” in a speech last night celebrating passage of his massive tax-cut and border security bill among supporters at the Iowa State Fairground.

The term “shylock,” used as a stand-in for aggressive moneylender or loan shark, is considered by many to be antisemitic, as it is the name of the Jewish moneylender and villain in William Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice,” which draws heavily on antisemitic stereotypes of Jews being stingy and greedy.

Lauding his “big beautiful bill,” Trump said that the tax cuts included within it meant that there would be “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.”

“They destroyed a lot of families, but we did the opposite,” he proclaimed.

Upon his return to the White House, Trump is asked by a reporter about his use of the term Shylock, and says he “never heard that” it has links to antisemitism.

“I’ve never heard it that way,” he says. “The meaning of Shylock is somebody that’s a moneylender at high rates.”

“You view it differently,” he insists. “I’ve never heard that.”

Reuters contributed to this report.