Trump uses antisemitic term while defending Sen. Roger Marshall
At an October 19 rally in Wichita, Trump invoked the stereotype-laden term “Shylock” while defending the Kansas senator over reports that he sued hundreds of former patients for unpaid bills.
President Donald Trump used the term “Shylock,” a word widely recognized as an antisemitic stereotype, while defending Republican Sen. Roger Marshall at a campaign rally in Wichita, Kansas, on Monday, October 19, 2026.
Trump was responding to scrutiny of Marshall’s medical-billing practices before the senator entered Congress. Addressing Marshall onstage, Trump said reports had portrayed him as “some kind of a Shylock-type guy” because his former practice pursued unpaid patient bills. CNN and NBC News independently reported the remark, and C-SPAN published video of the Wichita rally.
Trump’s defense of Marshall
Trump asserted that Marshall had been legally required to pursue the debts and could otherwise have faced criminal arrest or liability. The president did not identify a law supporting that claim. His description should therefore be understood as his argument at the rally, not as an established legal finding about medical-debt collection.
NBC News reported that the White House did not immediately respond to its request for comment about the language. The available reporting did not include a response from Marshall specifically addressing Trump’s use of the term.
Why the word drew criticism
Shylock is the Jewish moneylender in William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” The character has long been used to invoke stereotypes of Jewish people as greedy, predatory or obsessed with money. For that reason, major news organizations and Jewish civil-rights groups identify the name’s use as a label for a lender as antisemitic.
This was not Trump’s first public use of the word. During a July 2025 speech in Iowa, he used it while referring to lenders who charge high interest rates. After criticism, Trump said he had not known of its antisemitic meaning and understood it only as a term for a high-interest moneylender. The Anti-Defamation League called that earlier usage troubling and irresponsible, according to CNN and NBC News.
The controversy is not limited to Trump. Then-Vice President Joe Biden apologized in 2014 after using the word when discussing bankers who offered unfavorable loans to members of the military. That history underscores why the expression carries a recognized meaning beyond Shakespeare’s fictional character.
The dispute over Marshall’s former practice
The New York Times reported in September that Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist before his election to Congress, had sued more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills. NBC News said the cases led to scores of arrest warrants when defendants missed court dates. Marshall’s lawyer said the senator had no involvement in those warrants or arrests, and Marshall called the reporting a “hit job.”
Marshall has represented Kansas in the Senate since 2021 and is seeking reelection against Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor and former Republican. NBC News described the race as competitive, while the Cook Political Report rated it a toss-up. Trump’s rally was intended to support Marshall and other Republican candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
What is established — and what remains attributed
The central event is documented by video and two independent news reports: Trump used the term while defending Marshall at the October 19 rally. The number and nature of the medical-debt lawsuits come from reporting about Marshall’s prior practice; Marshall disputes the framing and, through his lawyer, denied responsibility for warrants and arrests.
Trump’s claim that debt collection was legally mandatory has not been substantiated in the cited coverage. The resulting story combines a recorded presidential statement, disputed reporting about a senator’s former business practices and the established historical use of an antisemitic stereotype. Keeping those elements separate is necessary to distinguish the remark itself from the contested allegations that prompted it.
Sources and image credit
Rally video: C-SPAN. Independent reporting: CNN and NBC News.
Image: Official 2017 portrait of Roger Marshall by Eric Connolly, U.S. House Office of Photography, sourced from Wikimedia Commons and marked public domain. Center-cropped and resized to 1600×900; no text added.