At a rally in Park City, Kansas, on October 19, 2026, Trump defended Sen. Roger Marshall over reporting that Marshall, a physician, had sued patients over unpaid medical bills: “And they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy. And if he didn't make these requests, he would be breaking the law,” according to the Roll Call Factbase transcript. Shylock is the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, and the name is widely regarded as an antisemitic slur. The legal claim is also wrong: “He's entitled to sue for unpaid bills but not required to do so,” Georgetown law professor Lawrence Gostin told CNN.
Trump used the word at a rally in Iowa in July 2025 and later said he didn't know it was viewed as antisemitic, CNN reported. The Anti-Defamation League wrote that the term is “rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype.” The Washington Examiner and NBC News also reported the remark.