Jessica Tarlov Calls Donald Trump's 'Shylock' Line on Roger Marshall Antisemitic

Jessica Tarlov says President Donald Trump used an antisemitic trope for the second time in as many years when he defended Republican Senator Roger Marshall at a Kansas rally on Monday. The attack is on Marshall's old medical practice, which sued hundreds of patients over unpaid bills.

Tarlov, a Fox News commentator and co-host of Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway, raised the remark on Tuesday's episode. Two weeks before Election Day, Trump has gone to Kansas to shore up an incumbent in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.

"And then he invoked the Shylock anti-Semitic trope, which President Trump did a year or two ago and said he didn't know that it was anti-Semitic," Tarlov said. "So everyone told him that it was anti-Semitic. And now he's used it again."

What Trump Said at the Kansas Rally

Trump spoke at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, outside Wichita. He told the crowd Marshall had been treated unfairly over the lawsuits and that the coverage made the senator out to be "some kind of a shylock-type guy," NBC News reported. Marshall is not Jewish.

Shylock is the Jewish moneylender in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice who demands a pound of flesh from a debtor. The Anti-Defamation League says the character presents Jews as "money-hungry, conniving, and cruel."

Trump used the word on July 3, 2025, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds while promoting his tax bill, referring to "shylocks and bad people" among lenders. Afterward he told reporters he had "never heard it that way," the Associated Press reported.

In Tarlov's view, "by using Shylock and talking about, you know, people with unpaid bills is obviously invoking a very stereotypical Jewish trope that is incredibly damaging." She said Republicans "are closing on gutter politics, absolutely," and added: "I thought it was just a really ugly scene overall."

The White House did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.

The Lawsuits Behind Roger Marshall's Attack Ads

Marshall was an obstetrician-gynecologist in Great Bend before he went to Congress. A New York Times analysis of Kansas court records, published Sept. 8, found that he and his practice, Heartland Regional OBGYN, sued more than 700 patients during his decades-long career, including one suit over $101. Eighty-one defendants were arrested after missing court dates. The practice charged 18 percent annual interest.

Steven Johnson, Marshall's lawyer, said the senator set the 18 percent rate in the contract patients signed but was not involved in decisions on warrants, arrests or garnishments, Medical Economics reported. Marshall called the story "totally a hit job by left media, an article paid for by Chuck Schumer" during an interview at the Republican National Committee midterm convention in Dallas, Fox News reported.

Trump also said at the rally that suing the patients was legally mandated, Tarlov said, a claim she said "absolutely isn't true."

Kansas Senate Race Is a Toss-Up

Marshall's Democratic opponent, the Rev. Adam Hamilton, has a campaign that is trying to bring the suits "front and center," Tarlov said. Tarlov said Marshall is "I don't want to say uniquely vulnerable, but quite vulnerable."

The numbers back her up. Hamilton leads Marshall 46.7 percent to 44.9 percent in PolitiKool's polling average. Kansas Senate seats are part of a toss-up fight for control of the chamber.

Galloway said the trip was a warning sign for Republicans: "when the president feels he needs to fly to Kansas to save an incumbent senator two weeks out, the map isn't expanding. It's literally caving in." He gave affordability more credit than the candidates, saying Kansans are "not voting for the Democrat, they're voting against their grocery bill."

The Kansas stop came as Trump's numbers sag nationally. His approval stands at 37.8 percent in PolitiKool's polling average, and the president is now hitting record lows in some surveys.

What Happens Next

Election Day is Nov. 3.