Donald Trump Slammed for Mocking Reporter With Disability

A Jewish foundation that advocates for disability inclusion chided presidential candidate Donald Trump for mocking a disabled reporter.
Jay Ruderman, president of the Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation, offered to provide the Republican frontrunner with sensitivity training, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
“It is unacceptable for a child to mock another child’s disability on the playground, never mind a presidential candidate mocking someone’s disability as part of a national political discourse,” Ruderman said.
In an appearance Tuesday in South Carolina, Trump jerked his arms about and mocked Serge Kovaleski, a reporter who has arthrogryposis, a condition that makes it hard for him to manipulate his joints. “You gotta see this guy,” Trump said.
Trump has cited a 2001 Washington Post report by Kovaleski to back up his claim that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey were seen celebrating the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Kovaleski’s report had said only that police had detained a number of people to question them about allegations that they celebrated the attacks.
Reporters contacted Kovaleski to ask whether he subsequently corroborated the allegations and whether the allegations referred to thousands of Muslims, and not just a “number” as Kovaleski had reported.
Kovaleski, who now works for the New York Times, said the allegations never were corroborated and that he had never heard allegations that thousands of Muslims had celebrated.
Trump, in an uncharacteristically lengthy statement posted on Twitter, said he does not know Kovaleski and had not intended to mock his disability.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
- 3
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 4
Fast Forward Trump’s antisemitism chief shares ‘Jew card’ post from white supremacist
In Case You Missed It
-
Sports The Trail Blazers let Israeli starter Deni Avdija cook, and minted a franchise player in the process
-
Fast Forward What Mahmoud Khalil says about Gaza and Israel in ‘The Encampments’ documentary
-
Fast Forward Frankfurt’s Jewish community launches its own sexual abuse hotline amid crises and pressure
-
Fast Forward Trump nixes pro-Israel darling Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be UN ambassador
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.