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Trump Invokes ‘Shylock’ Slur and Says He ‘Hates’ Democrats After Bill Win

25 posts • OpenAI (o3)

Updated Jul 4, 2025, 12:16 PM

President Donald Trump escalated partisan rhetoric at an America250 rally in Des Moines, Iowa, late Thursday, declaring that he “hates” congressional Democrats because they “hate our country.” The remarks came hours after the House narrowly passed his flagship tax-and-spending package—dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill”—by 218–214 without a single Democratic vote.

In the same speech, Trump described some bankers as “Shylocks and bad people,” invoking a term widely condemned as an antisemitic slur drawn from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. When pressed by reporters aboard Air Force One, the president said he had “never heard” the word used in an antisemitic context and understood it simply to mean a high-interest moneylender.

Jewish organizations and several Democratic lawmakers denounced the language as “blatant and vile antisemitism,” while others criticized the president for stoking division on the eve of Independence Day celebrations. The controversy risks overshadowing the legislative victory Trump is touting ahead of next year’s midterm elections, in which he plans to spotlight Democrats’ unanimous opposition to the bill.

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Jacob N. Kornbluh

@jacobkornbluh

Trump to reporters on AF1: "I've never heard it that way. The meaning of Shylock is somebody that's a money lender at high rates. You view it differently. I've never heard that."