Much has been made of the fact that after President Donald Trump posted a social media screed about immigrants in which he called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “seriously retarded,” a Republican state senator in Indiana, Mike Bohacek, said he was offended by the president’s slur and that he would oppose redistricting efforts.
But notice that few other Republicans have spoken up against Trump invoking the word long used as a pejorative for people with disabilities.
When I asked House Speaker Mike Johnson about it, he said “that’s not the word I would choose. I think his reaction was probably a spontaneous one to the enormous amount of fraud that was announced there.” When I asked Sen. Bill Cassidy, he said, “I didn’t hear that, so I’d rather not comment on things that I’m not aware of.”
Notice that few other Republicans have spoken up against Trump invoking the word long used as a pejorative for people with disabilities.
Asked on Sunday whether he stood by his language, Trump responded, “Yeah. I think there’s something wrong with him. Absolutely. Sure.” The White House sent out a press email headlined, “Yes, ‘There’s Something Wrong with Walz’ — and it Cost Taxpayers $1 Billion,” though it did not repeat the slur.
Some might argue that the muted response reflects the timing of Trump’s remarks: over the holiday weekend, while the president was out of Washington. But actually, some want the word to return to common usage. MAGA pundit Jack Posobiec, who hosts a show with Turning Point USA, posted on X: “Trump just officially gave us the word … back.”
Although people with disabilities, their loved ones and advocates had worked hard to heighten sensitivities and exorcise the slur, it has gurgled back into public discourse recently. And Trump’s rhetoric gave a presidential imprimatur for his followers to use it.
Arguably, Trump’s use of this hideous word is not the worst thing that he has done to people with disabilities. Some other low lights: Installing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of Health and Human Services has allowed Kennedy to promote quack ideas about vaccines and autism. During the federal government shutdown, the Trump administration tried to fire nearly the entire staff of the Education Department’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. His One Big Beautiful Bill slashed Medicaid, which is often a lifeline to people with disabilities.
These and other Trump administration actions actually make life harder for people with disabilities. But words still matter. They have a powerful effect. And all of this illustrates that the Trump administration cannot be trusted to handle the priorities of people with disabilities.
Trump’s rhetoric gave a presidential imprimatur for his followers to use it.
Until recently, I thought that society had moved past such slurs and that a new generation would not have to hear them. Between the 1990s and 2010s, advocates pushed to make the word undesirable. Special Olympics, the organization started by Kennedy’s aunt Eunice Kennedy Shriver, began a campaign to “Spread the Word to End the Word.”
In 2003, President George W. Bush changed the name of the President’s Committee on Mental Retardation to the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed “Rosa’s Law,” which replaced the term “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability” in federal language. Around that time, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, came under fire for using the term to refer to progressive groups. Emanuel called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize. A year later, the presidential campaign of Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann took a hit when she used the term.
All of this illustrates that the Trump administration cannot be trusted to handle the priorities of people with disabilities.
By 2019, Spread the Word to End the Word changed its name to “focus not just on the elimination of a word but on the creation of a new reality: inclusion for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.”
Unfortunately, much of this progress has been undone as use of the term revived, particularly over the past year. Podcaster Joe Rogan heralded the word’s return in an April episode, saying, “It’s one of the great cultural victories that I think is spurred on, probably, by podcasts.”
A January study by Montclair State University found use of the word spiked in X posts by 207.5% four days after Elon Musk – who is autistic – used it. In a January article headlined “Is corporate America going Maga,” the Financial Times quoted a banker saying “it’s a new dawn,” and they felt at liberty to use that pejorative and other ones “without the fear of getting canceled.”
Clearly, Trump’s use of the word does not exist in a vacuum. The same chuds who want to be able to use slurs for women, Jews, Black people and the LGBTQ+ community are on board. As Andrew Breitbart said, politics is a downstream of culture. Trump’s speech reflects and responds to shifts in language that were already happening. Now, more people have permission to be discriminatory.
Eric Garcia is an author and senior correspondent for The Independent.