United States. "Shylock": Donald Trump uses an anti-Semitic word to refer to loan sharks
Donald Trump used the controversial term "shylock" to refer to loan sharks at a rally in Iowa on Thursday evening, before later insisting he was unaware of the word's anti-Semitic connotations.
Donald Trump denied knowing the anti-Semitic connotations of the word "Shylock." Photo Alex Brandon/Sipa
"No death tax. No inheritance tax. No need to go to the banks and borrow from, in some cases, a good banker and, in some cases, shylocks and bad people," declared the American president, who was savoring the success of the passage of his budget bill on the occasion of the launch of the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
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"I never heard it that way," Trump replied, when asked later after he got off the plane about the anti-Semitic connotation of the term. "The meaning of the term shylock is someone who lends money at high rates. You see it differently. I've never heard that," he added.
The word shylock originates from a famous character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice . The villainous Shylock, a wealthy Jewish moneylender, has since become one of the most enduring embodiments of anti-Semitic prejudice. The term has also become a synonym for business shark. His predecessor, Joe Biden , who was then only vice president, had to apologize in 2014 for using the same term, acknowledging "an unfortunate choice of words."
Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization fighting anti-Semitism, denounced at the time a "stereotype about Jews deeply ingrained in society." In September, before his election, Donald Trump promised to confront the "horrible wave of anti-Semitic and pro-Hamas hatred" in the United States, presenting himself as a "defender, protector" of American Jews.
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