I think I know where TSF got the term, Shylock.

[no_hypocrisy]

Not because of he read Merchant of Venice. Not because of a college course. Not even a passing reference in his collection of Hitler's Speeches.

It came from Roy Cohn, his mentor.

All sorts of garbage flew out of Cohn's mouth. And it was universal. Yeah, Cohn was Jewish but hated being Jewish the way he hated gays but he was gay. Roy Cohn was a classic misanthrope. He hated everybody.

Cohn likely used "Shylock" and "bankers" several times in TSF's presence, but TSF didn't understand its reference and meaning. He just saw that it shook up people and remembered it and vowed he'd use it too.

[JT45242]

1. He knows it is derogatory to Jews..not the Shakespeare part...just the racist part

There is no one who grew up with someone like his dad (Nazi collaboration America first) that didn't know that that was the more socially acceptable spur for Jews when you couldn't use the regular pejorative terms.

The convicted felon and adjudicated rapist learned that at home. Because the other terms might get you in trouble in business and should not be said outside a safe 'just us' kind of crowd.

Just like white folks of the south know to use 'boy' when the n word would be socially unacceptable and might have business consequences

[no_hypocrisy]

3. My point exactly.

He talks like a four-year-old, not understanding what he's saying.

When I was four, our housekeeper was leaving for the day and I said "Good riddance!". I thought it was another way of saying Goodbye. I felt awful when it was explained to me what it really meant. (No chance with that with TSF.)

He heard it; he knew it was highly insulting and would (and will) use it to get that effect.

[JT45242]

6. My pint was he learned young...long before Roy Cohn was of any importance

He desperately wanted to please his evil old man. To be not just like him, but to be him.

His father was abusive and racist. So the adjudicated rapist was already like this emulating his Nazi collaborating old man before he even entered his first boarding school so that his disgusted old man did not have to see how pathetically stupid his spawn was.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. You could be correct with Fred Sr.'s influence.

My sister adopted her mindset to that of our father's, not just for survival, but to be his flying monkey. And she still has it decades later.

[Haggard Celine]

2. That's a good possibility.

I agree that he didn't read the term anywhere. He doesn't read and he probably never did. He picked up a lot from Cohn, and this is probably just one more thing. Only someone as twisted as Trump would.choose Roy Cohn as a mentor.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Actually, they selected each other.

TSF needed an attorney who would say and do anything to win. Cohn needed another person in his circle who would keep him elevated and in the Mix. Needless to say, TSF abandoned Cohn when the latter was dying of AIDS. Cohn repeatedly asked for TSF to see him, without a response. His famous last words: Donald Trump pisses ice water.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

5. Shylock

Is a very common street term used by both mob types and street hustler types. I first heard it when I was about 6 or 7 years old in Cleveland. It's really very common, or at least was.

[yardwork]

19. It's a very common slur against Jewish lenders.

[BeerBarrelPolka]

22. It was

a common term for loan sharks in general, be they Italians, blacks, or any other.

[mitch96]

23. I did not hear the Jewish part growing up. I just heard it in reference to a loan shark, shady lender or bank...nt

[hlthe2b]

8. Yes.. Cohn was a horrible man, but well-educated and well-read. Trump soaked up nearly every

evil thought and premise Cohn conveyed, so that would make sense. I certainly do not believe Trump read anything major, although he certainly internalized the tactics and methods of Hitler-whether he fully read that book of speeches on his nightstand, or not.

[AverageOldGuy]

9. Maybe we need to knock it off .. . .

. . . with our criticisms of Trump for using the term "shylock."

Because, as it turns out, VP Biden used the same term . . . he later apologized.

https://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/joe-biden-shylocks-reaction-111053

https://www.cnn.com/2014/09/17/politics/joe-biden-jewish-term

[PJMcK]

20. I'm not holding my breath...

… for Trump to apologize for using an obviously derogatory expression.

Trump, in fact, claimed he didn’t know it was an ugly slur. And he didn’t apologize or retract it.

You really cannot conflate Trump with President Biden who did apologize.

[sop]

10. "Shylock" used to be a pretty common term, it was used often on tv and in movies.

[John1956PA]

11. Yes. I recall hearing it in police/crime TV series back in the 1980s and 1990s.

[GoCubsGo]

16. That's where my brain first went, as wel.

I'm thinking it was actually during the mid- to late-1970s, when we saw A LOT of things on TV that would never be allowed today. But, yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if that's where President Flim Flam Man got that.

[John1956PA]

18. Thank you for your reply. I may have heard it from one of the detectives on "Hill Street Blues" back in the early 1980s.

Also, there is a possibility that one of the detectives on "Law & Order" uttered the term in the 1990s.

[twodogsbarking]

12. Very good observation. Peace.

[JCMach1]

13. Pure KKK vocab from their literature...

[Littlered]

14. It's a common underworld term.

That’s what you call the mob guys that loan money, nothing more.

[Gimpyknee]

15. And you know this how?

[Hugin]

17. Not as widely talked about, the Trumps were also tight with Norman Vincent Peale...

Quite controversial in his time…

Here’s a taste:

“For a time, Peale was acting chairman and Secretary of the National Committee to Uphold Constitutional Government (NCUCG), a pressure group opposed to Franklin Roosevelt's policies. In 1938, he was summoned by a Senate Committee Investigating Lobbying Activities, to answer questions concerning the NCUCG's activities.”

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Vincent_Peale#Political_controversies

You’d better read it fast as the profile is currently being scrubbed by people who don’t want history known.

Yes, the path of the making of the Mitchenstein Monster were very circuitous and there were many contributors to his warped and twisted world view.

[Blue Full Moon]

21. Sounds like Stephen Miller

[UTUSN]

24. K&R - and MILLER is COHN resuscitated