What would a Trump presidency mean for Autistics?
By Helen
Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne, Australia
Trigger warning- discussion of Autism misinformation
How would a newly elected US President Donald Trump treat Autistics? Let's look at the way he treated William Trump, the son of his nephew Fred III.
Cutting disabled relative’s
health insurance
Shortly after he was born, Donald
Trump’s grand-nephew, William Trump, was diagnosed with infantile spasms, which
could lead to seizures, cerebral palsy or Autism. According to William’s
father, Fred III, Donald Trump never visited his critically ill grand-nephew in
hospital. Donald Trump’s father, Fred Snr, had intended for William to be
covered by his company’s health insurance, but during a family legal dispute over
Fred Snr’s will, Donald Trump and his surviving siblings pulled William off the
health insurance plan.
According to the New Zealand
Herald,
"When (Fred III) sued
us, we said, 'Why should we give him medical coverage?'" the future
president told The New York Daily News in 2000.
The paper asked him whether
he thought the move could look cold-hearted, "given the young child's
medical condition".
"I can't help
that," Trump said.
Supporting an Autism “cure”
Much has been said about Trump’s support for Autism Awareness during his 2016-2020 presidency. On April 2nd 2017, the White House was lit up blue and Trump issued a statement calling for “new treatments and cures for autism.” Autistic activists, however, are not so impressed. Lighting up blue for Autism Awareness is in fact a campaign of Autism Speaks, which became infamous for labelling Autism as a burden and a tragedy. The overwhelming majority of Autistics do not seek a cure and instead wish to live as our authentic selves. In fact, renowned Autism experts such as Dr Temple Grandin, Prof Simon Baron-Cohen and Prof Tony Attwood believe Autistic genes are a natural genetic variation responsible for much of humanity’s innovation and scientific advancement, but Trump has never acknowledged this.
Promoting debunked
vaccine-Autism link
Donald Trump tweeted, "Healthy
young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines,
doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!
11:35 PM · Mar 28, 2014"
Donald Trump has been spreading
misinformation about Autism since his first presidential election campaign. As
reported in the Healio Paediatrics website
“During the 2015 Republican
presidential debate, Trump noted that “autism has become an epidemic,” and –
citing the famously debunked 1998 research of Andrew Wakefield linking autism to measles-mumps-rubella
vaccines – proposed “alternative” immunization schedules
and the possible benefit of delaying vaccination…..
“There is no ‘alternative’
immunization schedule,” Karen Remley, MD, MBA, MPH, executive director and
CEO of the AAP, said in a press release. “Delaying vaccines only leaves a child
at risk of disease for a longer period of time; it does not make vaccinating
safer. Vaccines work, plain and simple. Vaccines are one of the safest, most
effective and most important medical innovations of our time. Pediatricians
partner with parents to provide what is best for their child, and what is best
is for children to be fully vaccinated.”
As recently as mid July 2024,
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump continued espousing conspiracy
theories about vaccines to independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy
Jnr. In a video which Trump has attempted to pull from the internet, according
to AP Fact Focus, the following conversation took place:
TRUMP: “A vaccination that
is like 38 different vaccines and it looks like it’s meant for a horse, not a,
you know, 10-pound or 20-pound baby” and “then you see the baby all of a sudden
starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear
that it doesn’t have an impact, right?”
THE FACTS: There are no
38-disease shots. Babies or toddlers may get four or five vaccinations during a
check-up to protect them against dangerous and deadly diseases.
The American Academy of Pediatricians is adamant that a handful of vaccines
does not overwhelm a healthy tot’s immune system. After all, babies’ immune
systems are strong enough to handle the huge number of everyday germs they
encounter.
It is a slur on Autistics, to
describe our natural genetic attributes as an “epidemic” in need of a “cure” and
a form of vaccine damage. In recent years, over a million Americans have died
from covid. Many of these deaths are surely attributable to vaccine scepticism,
which has been fuelled by Wakefield, Kennedy and Trump.
Project 2025
Project 2025 describes itself as
a “presidential transition project” which aims to “rescue” the United States
from “the grip of the radical Left”.
According to social media posts
made by Robert Reich, Professor, former Secretary of Labor, Co-founder
Inequality Media:
Trump is now desperately
trying to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he has "no idea who
is behind it."
Don't be fooled. The
playbook is written by more than 20 officials Trump appointed in his first
term. It is the clearest vision we have of a 2nd Trump presidency. This is some
of what it entails:
Disadvantaging diverse students
Donald Trump has vowed to defund
schools which have practices he doesn’t support. If elected, he will defund schools
that require students to be vaccinated or to wear face masks during a pandemic.
This means that preventable diseases like measles, whooping cough and pertussis
will increasingly be doing the rounds in American schools and any new pandemic could
spread like wildfire amongst school children and their families. All children
will be unsafe but vulnerable disabled children with health problems will be
extremely unsafe at schools.
Ironically Trump’s support for
the gun lobby doesn’t seem to be wavering since being shot in the ear. He
refuses to believe that his support for the gun lobby is in any way responsible for school
shootings. He considers critical race theory and transgender education far more
dangerous to children than widespread gun ownership and will defund schools
which include these subjects. It is well known that there is a higher incidence
of transsexualism and gender dysphoria amongst Autistics, and Autism acceptance
will only suffer with the ban on teaching children to accept gender
differences.
The Oxford dictionary describes
critical race theory as “a set of ideas holding that racial bias is inherent in
many parts of western society, especially in its legal and social institutions,
on the basis of their having been primarily designed for and implemented by
white people.”
If we are not allowed to teach that society
disadvantages People of Colour through being designed primarily for whites, how
are we ever going to be allowed to teach that society disadvantages Autistics
by being designed for neurotypicals? In a Trump-led USA, Autistics will need to
be prevented, treated and cured, as his statements have already indicated, not better
understood and accepted.
According to Nancy Bailey’s Education
Website
The Heritage
Foundation’s Project 2025 is
generally troubling, and its
education plan is worrisome. It involves Milton Friedman’s undemocratic
ideas to privatize public education, and its voucher plan for students with
disabilities will continue to end public school services as we know them….
Project 2025 wishes to
eliminate the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE)…
The Fallacy of Choice: The Destructive Effect of School Vouchers on Children
with Disabilities by Farrel and Marx, also states:
School voucher programs
require students with disabilities to sign away their robust federal rights and
protections in the public school system. Under the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)—the preeminent legislative safeguard for
students with disabilities—these rights include the right to a “free and
appropriate public education” delivered through an “individualized education
plan.” By giving up these protections, children with disabilities are left at
the mercy of private schools that have no legal obligation to provide them with
an appropriate education, and, in the vast majority of cases, are not legally
prohibited from discriminating against them on the basis of their disability.
How will this affect us
here in Australia? We already have right wing politicians who support Donald
Trump. Queensland’s One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has previously cast
doubts on the safety of vaccines and in 2017 called for the removal of Autistic
students from regular classrooms. Conservative commentator, Newscorp journalist
Andrew Bolt has chimed in, insulting Autistic climate activist Greta Thunberg
in his opinion pieces. A second Trump presidency will bring craven Trumplings
out of the woodwork all around the world.
But there is a sign of hope for
American Autistics. During the 2016 election campaign, as reported in NBC News:
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