U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New Jersey, U.S., June 6, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard REFILE - QUALITY REPEAT
Robert Davis is an award-winning journalist and senior editor at RawStory. Before joining the team, he wrote for publications such as Forbes, Business Insider, Capital & Main, and The Colorado Sun, to name a few. He's a graduate of New York University's Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism and lives in Denver.
Trump was talking about a provision in his mega budget and domestic policy bill that made the $15 million estate tax threshold permanent. That means people who own estates valued at less than $15 million can transfer them to their children or heirs tax-free.
"Before Trump, you were losing farms to the banks," Trump told the crowd. "Before Trump, we were losing farms like you'd never seen before. You love your children, you don't feel so well, and you pass away. You leave everything to your children, and they have to pay a big estate tax or a death tax, as we call it. And they couldn't do it. They go out and borrow money from a bank to prevent foreclosure. That can happen."
"No death tax. No estate tax. No going to the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, shylocks and bad people," Trump continued.
The term "shylock" refers to a character in William Shakespear's "The Merchant of Venice." It has been used to refer to people of Jewish descent for more than 50 years, according to Time Magazine.
