Trump Defends Marshall With Antisemitic Shylock Remark

President Donald Trump defended Sen. Roger Marshall at a Kansas rally on Monday by saying news coverage had portrayed the Republican senator as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy,” using a term widely recognized as an antisemitic stereotype. Trump’s remark referred to reporting about Marshall’s former medical practice and its efforts to collect unpaid patient bills. Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist who is not Jewish, has faced scrutiny over lawsuits brought against former patients. Trump said Marshall had received a bum rap and told him he had been “screwed with that stuff,” according to accounts of the rally. The term refers to Shylock, a Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice.” The Anti-Defamation League says the character, and by extension Jews, are presented through stereotypes of being money-hungry, conniving and cruel. The term has long been used as a derogatory stereotype linking Jewish people with greed and predatory lending. Trump used the same term in a speech the previous year while discussing bankers and borrowing. At that time, after criticism, he said he had not heard it used with antisemitic connotations and described it as...