President Donald Trump used the word "Shylock" on Monday night at a rally in Park City, Kansas, near Wichita. He was defending Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican and former OB-GYN. Marshall sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills, a New York Times investigation found last month. At least 81 of them were arrested after missing court dates. "You have to, by law, go after those people, and they made it like, oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy," Trump said. Marshall isn't Jewish. Shylock is the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Trump also used the word in a July 2025 speech in Iowa. The White House hasn't responded to requests for comment. Marshall faces Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor. The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.

He Knows What It Means Now (JCPA's Amy Spitalnick, The Bulwark's Sam Stein)

Critics say Trump got called out for this word a year ago, so using it again can't be an accident.

Critics called him out last time. Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, pointed out that Trump was "called out" for the word a year ago and said then that he didn't know it was a problem. "Again: not an accident," she wrote on X. "He has consistently normalized antisemitic conspiracy theories and tropes."

You only get the line if you know the slur. Sam Stein of The Bulwark spelled it out on X. "He's saying they made Marshall look like a Jew by pointing out he sued his patients for unpaid bills," he wrote. A New York Daily News report made the same point: Trump's line about Marshall "presumes that the listeners would know 'Shylock' is a slur."

But He May Just Not Know Better (Trump in 2025, Writer Mark Oppenheimer)

Some say Trump uses the word carelessly because he doesn't know where it comes from.

He said it just means a high-rate lender. After the Iowa speech in July 2025, Trump told reporters he'd "never heard it that way." "To me, Shylock is somebody that's a moneylender at high rates," he said.

He doesn't know where the word comes from. Mark Oppenheimer, a Jewish author, made this case after the first use, in July 2025. He wrote that Trump "does not know that 'Shylock' comes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice." Oppenheimer said he couldn't know what's in Trump's heart. But he called the word "not about the Jews," and said "it's about being an unlettered git."

Either Way, the Word Does Damage (ADL)

The country's best-known antisemitism watchdog says intent doesn't change the harm.

What he meant doesn't matter much. The Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday that the word "is rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype." "Regardless of intent, its use can reinforce harmful tropes about Jews and normalize language that has long been used to target the Jewish community," it wrote.

This time, the statement didn't name him. In July 2025, the ADL called Trump's use of the word "very troubling and irresponsible." Tuesday's statement left out the president's name.

Marshall's Side Says He Got a Bum Rap (Trump, Kansas Voters)

The president says the law forced Marshall to chase those debts, and his voters shrug at the story.

He was just following the law. Trump said Marshall was "given a bum rap because he was mandated by law to request strongly money owed from patients." He blamed the arrests on a judge and the law. "Roger, I have to tell it like it is. You got screwed with that," Trump said. Marshall has called the Times story a "hit job." His lawyer says he had no role in the warrants or arrests.

Some of his voters don't care. Donna and Tom McLain traveled about two and a half hours from Lenexa. They said the debt reports don't bother them. "It's politics," Donna McLain told the Kansas Reflector. "The same can be said for his opponent."

But No Law Made Him Sue (KC Star, Georgetown's Lawrence Gostin, Hamilton's Campaign)

A fact-check and a health-law expert say no law required the suits, and Hamilton's campaign says Washington sent in reinforcements to save Marshall.

Doctors don't have to sue anyone. The Kansas City Star's fact check found that "no federal or state law requires doctors to sue patients over unpaid medical debt." Lawrence Gostin, who directs Georgetown Law's O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, said Marshall is "entitled to sue for unpaid bills but not required to do so."

The Democrat's campaign says Trump came to rescue Marshall. Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody said the rally showed Washington panicking. "They're sending in reinforcements to lie and attack Adam Hamilton to try to save Marshall," he said. At a debate last month, Hamilton said "there are 2,000 verses in the Bible that speak to caring for the poor."

Where This Lands

Spitalnick says a second use after a public warning is no accident, and Stein says Trump's line accuses critics of painting Marshall as a Jew for suing his patients. Oppenheimer argued after the first use that Trump just doesn't know where the word comes from. Trump said in 2025 that it means a high-rate lender. The ADL says the harm is the same either way. This time, it didn't name him. Trump says Marshall did what the law required, and the Kansas City Star and Gostin say no law required it. Marshall and Hamilton debate on Wednesday.

Sources