Eric Trump faces anti-Semitic criticism after saying Bob Woodward’s book was written for ‘extra shekels’

Eric Trump appeared this morning on Fox and Friends in an attempt to play down criticism of his father.

At one point he described Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, Fear: Trump in the White House, as a “sensational nonsense book.” He followed up by saying that the book’s dramatic quotes about Trump’s instincts is a cash grab and “will mean you sell three extra books, you make three extra shekels.”

Woodward isn’t Jewish but Trump’s use of the word shekels — Israel’s currency — raised some eyebrows among viewers. The word is sometimes used in a discriminatory fashion by anti-Semites.

On Twitter, critics called him out, saying “it’s insane,” “outrageous,” and “incredibly anti-Semitic and intentional.”

And it wasn’t only people on the left, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro called it “garbage,” and the New York Post’s op-ed editor Seth Mandel called it “crap.”

Keener grammar critics also poked fun at Trump’s incorrect use of the word behest (“it will mean you sell three extra books, you make three extra shekels at the behest of the American people, at the behest of our country”), which Merriam-Webster defines as “an authoritative order.”

Trump seems to mean behest as either “contrary to” or “at the risk of” — but either way, it’s not going to help his reputation as a dunce.

See who a new DWTS contestant will be:

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:

• Mystery surrounding whereabouts of ‘X-Men’ actress Fan Bingbing prompts theories about her disappearance

• Norm Macdonald issues an apology for ‘minimizing the pain’ of Roseanne Barr and Louis C.K. victims

• Mac Miller’s friend says Ariana Grande was ‘unbelievably involved and helpful’ in late rapper’s sobriety