The Anti-Defamation League was heavily criticized on social media Tuesday for its post condemning the use of “a longstanding antisemitic stereotype” that reinforces “harmful tropes about Jews,” but not mentioning who said it.

The “longstanding antisemitic stereotype” the ADL referenced comes by way of the William Shakespeare play “The Merchant of Venice,” which features a Jewish villain whose name is now considered a slur against Jewish people.

The ADL was forced to comment after President Donald Trump used the term at a rally Monday night for embattled Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas.

Trump defended Marshall over reports that the former doctor had sued more than 700 patients for debts when he worked as an OB-GYN and had dozens arrested for missing court dates.

“He was given a bum rap, because he was mandated by law to request — strongly — money owed from patients,” Trump said of Marshall. “You’re not allowed not to do it. You have to, by law, go after those people. And they made it like, ‘Oh, he was some kind of a Shylock-type guy.’”

But while the ADL felt compelled to comment about the slur on social media, it wouldn’t name the guy who said it.

“The term ‘Shylock’ is rooted in a longstanding antisemitic stereotype. Regardless of intent, its use can reinforce harmful tropes about Jews and normalize language that has long been used to target the Jewish community,” the organization wrote on social media.

Many people found it strange that the ADL left out Trump’s name while denouncing the slur, especially since it’s not the first time he’s used it.

In July, 2025, during a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump extolled the purported benefits of his so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” by saying: “No death tax. No estate tax. No going through the banks and borrowing from, in some cases, a fine banker, and in some cases, Shylocks and bad people.”

As journalist Sam Stein noted on X, the ADL had no problem calling out Trump’s use of the slur as “very troubling and irresponsible” last year.

The ADL did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

The organization also limited commenting on the post, but that didn’t stop people from calling the group out for cowardice.