# Trump: Ignorant, Antisemitic, or Both? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 4, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490 "2025-07-04T16:28:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/1 "2025-07-04T16:28:29Z")
" President Donald Trump said early Friday that he wasn’t aware that some people view the word “Shylock” as antisemitic after using the term during a rally to decry amoral money lenders. “I’ve never heard it that way. To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates,” Trump told reporters after getting off Air Force One. “I’ve never heard it that way, you view it differently than me. I’ve never heard that.” [Trump says he had ‘never heard’ Shylock as an anti-semitic term after using it at rally | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/04/politics/trump-iowa-rally-antisemitic-term) Personally, I think he knew, and that it won’t matter at all to his “true believers”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/2 "2025-07-04T16:38:16Z")
I mean, this is a guy who figures that the reason for the existence of Jews is to manage his money. Or would be, if he ever actually had any money. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/3 "2025-07-04T16:40:03Z")
[![](https://media.tenor.com/awmwbToisxwAAAAe/both-why.png) ](https://media.tenor.com/awmwbToisxwAAAAe/both-why.png) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/4 "2025-07-04T16:40:58Z")
How erudite, coming from someone whose evangelical supporters would protest that Portia committed “the sin of empathy.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/5 "2025-07-04T16:45:01Z")
I’m voting for “both”. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/6 "2025-07-04T16:46:30Z")
All three of them: ignorant, antisemite and liar. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/7 "2025-07-04T16:50:15Z")
Trump’s bigotry is a direct result of his privilege. I’m quite certain that things like, ‘When the _slur for Poles_ are done with the drywall get the _slur for Asians_ in to clean up so the _slur for Italians_ can start painting.’ were commonly heard during his time as a developer and no sycophantic underling dare to point out Trump’s bigotry to him. He doesn’t know any better because since his birth no one has taught him not to be a bigot, certainly not Fred Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/8 "2025-07-04T17:18:31Z")
I’m pretty surprised that he even knows the word “Shylock” at all. Seems too literary for him. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/9 "2025-07-04T17:23:17Z")
You actually think he knows the origins of Shylock??? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/10 "2025-07-04T17:31:39Z")
Good grief, no way. This is a guy who paid other kids to attend classes for him. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/11 "2025-07-04T18:19:06Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > You actually think he knows the origins of Shylock??? Yes. How many people who know what a shylock means in banking terms but are ignorant of the Jewish connection? Extremely few, I think. And Trump has previously trafficked in [Jews = money stereotyping](https://www.jta.org/2015/12/04/politics/five-takeaways-from-the-republican-jewish-coalitions-presidential-forum). A big part of Trump’s shtick is to say that it’s OK to be an Archie Bunker. He needs to know the vocabulary well so he can calibrate how far he can go. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/12 "2025-07-04T18:32:23Z")
But he may know about the Jewish connection without knowing the origin of that connection, in other words he knows that Shylock = Usurer (Jew) but doesn’t have the slightest idea about the Shakespeare character. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/13 "2025-07-04T18:39:06Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > a shylock means in banking terms but are ignorant of the Jewish connection These two are inextricably connected. > [@Frodo](#): > > the Shakespeare character. AIUI Shakespeare originated the name and its usage to refer to a Jewish person who was a banker or a money lender. Like Shakespeare’s character. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/14 "2025-07-04T18:41:34Z")
The use of “Shylock” as a slur, if I am not mistaken comes from the Shakespeare character who was an usurer who wanted the proverbial “pound of flesh” in payment. Your run of the mill ignoramus (like Trump) can perfectly use the word as an antisemitic slur without knowing its origin. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/15 "2025-07-04T18:44:28Z")
I’m quite sure that in Trump’s ‘’‘brain’‘’ _banker_ is the shortened form of _Jewbanker_. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/16 "2025-07-04T18:44:56Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Your run of the mill ignoramus (like Trump) can perfectly use the word as an antisemitic slur without knowing its origin But you also have to accept as fact that no one ever told him it was a slur. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/17 "2025-07-04T18:46:45Z")
Why? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/18 "2025-07-04T18:49:57Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > Your run of the mill ignoramus (like Trump) can perfectly use the word as an antisemitic slur without knowing its origin He either knows it is a slur, or he doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/19 "2025-07-04T18:52:13Z")
Yes, but that has no impact on whether or know he knows the origin of the word. I think he know perfectly well that it’s a slur, he doesn’t know it comes from Shakespeare (because: ignorant) and really really doesn’t _care_ about it being a slur, except perhaps as a show of power: “look, I can use slurs with impunity!” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2025, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490/20 "2025-07-04T18:53:32Z")
He doesn’t have to have an extensive Shakespearian knowledge base to know that it is a Jewish slur. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-ignorant-antisemitic-or-both/1020490.md?page=2)