That’s what I’m saying, you even quoted me saying it:
Far from “it won’t matter” to the MAGA faithful, it’s almost certainly a dog whistle to them. He’s wrung most of the angst he can get out of trans high school athletes, ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden, the impotent Democrats in Congress, and he’s made the supposed violent criminal gang members look like victims for deporting grandmothers and small children with critical medical issues, so he needs to find a new group to scapegoat for the impending financial collapse of the American economy. Who better to blame than the Jews by referencing one so greedy and vengeful (albeit not without reason) that demands a literally pound of flesh next to Antonio’s heart.
Although I very much doubt that Trump knows The Merchant of Venice or has the capacity to understand the subtext of the play, the conclusion is very much one that feeds directly into the grievance that energizes his base; the grotesque treatment and punishment of Shylock, divesting him of his fortune in bogus court proceedings that deny him due process of law and forcibly converting him to Christianity.
Stranger
I suspect he got a wire crossed between “‘Shylock’ isn’t antisemitic, it just means a shady moneylender!” and “‘Shyster’ isn’t antisemitic, it just means a shady lawyer!”
Of course both. While some people can overcome it, it would be virtually impossible for someone of his ethnos and social class not to be raised with casual antisemitism. Obviously, the thinks that Jews understand money by instinct and also make good shyster lawyers. Then there is the Stephen Miller that allows him to say, “Some of my best friends are Jewish.”
Remember that poor ol’ Trump has to walk that fine line of being pro-Israel while also being anti-Semitic. How could he possibly manage that without a few such dogwhistles poor choices of words?
As much as I loath to defend the man in any way, shape, or form, I actually find it plausible Trump didn’t know referring to someone as Shylock was antisemitic. A few years back I had to explain to my mother that “Jewing him down” was not the appropriate way to tell the neighbor you negotiated a better price for your house. My mother was genuinely surprised it was considered antisemitic. What’s weird is I can’t recall her saying anything like that when I was a kid.
– Donald J. Trump, Think Like a Champion: An Informal Education In Business and Life
Every word and idea from the ghostwriter? Maybe. But when you went to semi-elite high schools and colleges in the 1960’s, you got a fair amount of Shakespeare exposure.
Trump is pretty careful to go just so far with tribal insults.This is important to his brand. If he was just throwing this stuff out in ignorance, he wouldn’t be where he is.
Hypothesis: Trump thinks that by sending the B-2’s to Iran, he did something for the Jews, so he can get away with going a bit further with insulting Jews than normally.
That doesn’t mean any of it actually penetrated his consciousness.
Judging by the plethora, nay, multitudes of MAGA-bots and general hoi-polloi repeating the same rationalizations over at Twitter, this might actually cause a ripple in his support. They wouldn’t be pouring on the defense so hard if it was just going to go blow over easy.
Personally, I think for a lot, maybe most, MAGA, that Jews are on the Secret List of Undesirable Human Vermin just a bit after the trans people and Latinos. Probably either side-by-side with or just a hair after homosexuals. Call it the Niemoller Principal.
Would not be surprised if the “Sh” made him think it’s all Yiddishe Vaudeville terms like “schlemiel-shlemazel”, so why would it bother Jews. But really, the answer is “liar”. To elaborate…
…he threw it out casually and w/o giving it any thought at all because he just heard it used that way all his life, and when it was pointed out, he immediately went into one of his standard responses, the “never heard of it, ever, who knew” defense.
Ignorant. Perhaps with a dose of “dog whistle” and I’d wager trump wouldn’t even know why it’s a dog whistle.
Ignorance in my case. I’m well educated, extensive vocabulary, worked in investment banking for most of the 1990’s, yet “shylock” being obviously antisemitic is not something I am cognizant of. I don’t think I’ve actually used “shylock” in real life, and certainly never as an intentional slur. Nor could I solid explanation of why it’s antisemitic.
I hate to 'splain or be an apologist for DJT. I’ll save my outrage for his very obvious, black and white, horrific vocabulary usage.
I spent the last little while trying extremely hard to imagine any plausible scenario under which I’d think this guy has earned my benefit of the doubt.
Nope. I got nothin’.
My impression is that MAGA hate Jews, but they hate Muslims more. So right now they’re pro Israel, but they could and would easily turn on Israel if they ran out of enemies.
I’m surprised a guy who lied 30,573 times in his first 4 years as president doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.
I’ve seen the same rationale from the MAGATs on Twitter and I fail to see why one would even admit this. Because you personally aren’t familiar with The Merchant of Venice means it’s a perfectly cromulent word to use? Fuck that noise. Listen, I’m sorry your literary world is that sheltered but I personally have no other knowledge of that word being used as anything other than an antisemitic slur and I have since about 9th grade when I read the damn play.
Coming out with, “who knew?” just like the president only makes you look as pathetic as he does.
Sorry, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em.
Calling somebody a Shylock is no different that calling somebody a Guido or a Sambo. Or referring to a Hispanic senator who’s name is ‘Alex’ as ‘Pedro.’ This is all cut and friggin’ dried.
Then why didn’t he use the k word? Or complain of being jewed down?
Why doesn’t be use any of the most offensive possible words to slur Black people, or women (except if caught on a tape never meant to be publicized)?
How about Pocahontas? Had he heard that one used as a slur his whole life?
Donald Trump is as careful in calibrating how far he can go in ethnic insults as the writers who crafted Archie Bunker’s lines.
Because he isn’t talking about being Jewed down and Shylock, like shyster, is specific subtype of Jew Kike.
No one has proposed this but my money is on Trump learning every anti-Semitic trope he knows from Roy Cohn.
Extremely unlikely in the son of Fred Trump
Freshman year in college, there was a guy from Iowa in our dorm who described how he got a good deal from someone by “jewing him down”. He appeared genuinely surprised and apologetic when informed it was an anti-Semitic slur. Trump, being much older and more experienced, doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. It’s probably part of his “I can get away with anything” mindset.
Betcha didn’t know that expressing classic bigoted memes doesn’t make you anti-Semitic. Case in point: Georgia Republican leader Kandiss Taylor, who’s running for Congress in ‘26 in the 1st district, was on white nationalist Stew Peters’ show when he went on an anti-Semitic rant, and she agreed with him, saying Jews are “controlling everything”, complaining elsewhere that too many people “pander to Jews”. After the fallout hit, she protested that she’s a strong supporter of Israel and “Jews around the world”. Neat contortionist trick.
Taylor made the news today for posting on Twitter re the Texas floods: "Fake weather. Fake hurricanes. Fake flooding. Fake. Fake. Fake.” (apparently she wants to blame everything on “weather modification”.
Aspiring to be the craziest, vilest Congress critter from Georgia is a tough ambition to fulfill, in a state that’s elected Marjorie Taylor Greene. But Kandiss Taylor might be able to do it.
Yeah, but you have to do the reading and go to class and there is no reason to believe that he ever did that. Come to think of it, I don’t think there was any Shakespeare in my college English classes, although there were dips into Beowulf and Chaucer, but I was in the college of liberal arts and he was in Wharton.