Trump Uses Antisemitic Slur While Defending Sen. Roger Marshall

Jonathan Ernst / Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Donald Trump dropped an antisemitic slur while defending Republican Sen.

Roger Marshall of Kansas at a midterm campaign rally.

Speaking in Wichita on Monday night, the 80-year-old president used the term “Shylock,” a reference to the Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice , who demands a “pound of flesh” from a character unable to repay a loan.

For centuries, the term has been used to perpetuate offensive stereotypes about Jewish people and money.

During the rally, Trump said Marshall was not a “Shylock-type guy” when he sued more than 700 of his own patients over outstanding bills during his decades-long career as an obstetrician-gynecologist.

“I have to say this.

Somebody said, “Oh, don’t say it, nobody believes it,’ but I have to say it because I think it’s appropriate.

Roger… he was given a bum rap, because he was mandated by law to request, strongly, money owed from patients,” Trump said.

“You have to, by law, go after those people.

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.

He would have been breaking a very strong criminal law, and he would be subject to criminal arrest and liability.

“So I don’t know if I should be saying it, but that’s the way it is,” Trump added.

“Roger, I have to tell it like it is.

You got screwed with that.” Trump was supposed to be using the rally as an opportunity to boost Marshall’s re-election hopes.