President Donald Trump stirred controversy Thursday night after using a widely recognized antisemitic slur during a campaign rally while touting his administration’s estate tax reforms. Speaking to a crowd in Iowa, Trump discussed a provision from one of his signature domestic policy bills that permanently set the estate tax threshold at $15 million.
This allows families with estates valued under that amount to pass them on to heirs without facing federal estate taxes. “Before Trump, you were losing farms to the banks,” Trump said. “Before Trump, we were losing farms like you’d never seen before.
You love your children, you don’t feel so well, and you pass away. You leave everything to your children, and they have to pay a big estate tax or a death tax, as we call it. And they couldn’t do it. They go out and borrow money from a bank to prevent foreclosure. That can happen.”
However, it was a remark that followed which raised concern and drew immediate backlash. “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,” Trump added.
The term “shylock” has long been viewed as a derogatory slur with antisemitic roots. It originates from the character Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, a Jewish moneylender portrayed as greedy and vindictive. According to Time Magazine, the term has been used in a derogatory manner toward people of Jewish descent for more than half a century.
Trump’s use of the term immediately drew criticism from civil rights organizations and political observers, many of whom noted that the slur perpetuates harmful stereotypes. While Trump did not clarify or walk back his comment during the rally, his language mirrors a previous controversy involving another political figure.
As Time Magazine also noted, then-Vice President Joe Biden came under fire in 2014 for using the same term during a speech criticizing predatory lending practices targeting military families. Following condemnation from the Anti-Defamation League, Biden issued an apology, acknowledging the term’s offensive connotation.
At the time of writing, Trump has not commented further on the remark or issued any apology. The latest incident adds to a pattern of inflammatory rhetoric that has frequently drawn scrutiny during Trump’s public appearances and could further fuel criticism of his campaign as he seeks a return to the White House in 2024.