Trump Pitches Bill Ending Estate Tax for Farms, Uses 'Shylocks' Slur

Speaking at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. President Donald Trump said his administration is drafting legislation that would make his earlier tax cuts permanent and abolish the federal estate tax on family farms. The measure, he told supporters, would also remove federal taxes on tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits. Trump asserted that the proposal would spare “over two million” family farms from the so-called death tax, a figure he repeated after an earlier reference to “two billion” farms. He argued that eliminating the levy would keep land in family hands rather than forcing heirs to borrow against it. The president added that the plan would free farmers from turning to lenders he characterized as “fine bankers” in some instances and “Shylocks and bad people” in others, reviving a term widely criticized as an antisemitic slur. No legislative text or timetable for the bill’s introduction has yet been released.