During a speech to supporters at the Iowa Fair Grounds, Donald Trump just used an antisemitic slur to refer to bankers who exploit their clients.
Early in his remarks, which are ongoing, Trump railed against estate taxes, which he said sometimes force people who inherit farms to have to borrow money from banks to pay the tax. The tax-and-spending bill passed by the House on Thursday slightly raises the estate tax exemption.
The president then envisioned what he called a brighter future for Americans in which there would be no such tax and so “no going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases a fine banker, and in some cases shylocks and bad people”.
In 2014, after then vice-president Joe Biden described those who take financial advantage of American service members as “shylocks”, he called the Anti-Defamation League’s national director to apologize for his “a poor choice of words” by making reference to a stereotypical Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.
