Overview

• Congress passed the “Big Beautiful Bill” on July 3, extending 2017 tax cuts and establishing a permanent $15 million estate tax threshold
• During a Salute to America rally in Des Moines that evening, Trump described some lenders as “shylocks and bad people” while touting the bill’s elimination of death and estate taxes
• The term “shylock” traces to Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and is widely recognized as a longstanding antisemitic trope
• Advocacy organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have condemned the use of the slur and demanded accountability for hate speech in political discourse
• The White House has not responded to media requests for comment, drawing criticism over its silence on a recognized antisemitic epithet