Kevin’s Journal: While Trump Attacks Newsom, He is Also Attacking Millinos of People Around the World

President Donald Trump, right, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom speak to the media upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images/TNS)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is very likely a Democratic candidate for president in 2028. President Trump does not like him one bit. His policies are not the only reason Trump dislikes Newsom; it is something deeper.

Newsom has dyslexia, which is a learning disability that affects millions of people around the world and can affect how a person spells, reads, recognizes how similar letters and shapes are different (ex; p and q), and mixes up the positions of letters and sounds in a word, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

According to Trump on March 16, “With a low-IQ person, you know, because Gavin ‘Newscum’ has admitted that he is a, that he has learning disabilities. Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. I don’t want, I think a president should not have learning disabilities, okay? And I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.”

Trump regularly refers to Newsom as “Newscum.”

Of course this is not new — Trump has been mocking people with disabilities since the 2016 campaign trail — but this is the first time he has said something so misguided about people with disabilities. According to United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton, a nonprofit organization that supports children and adults with disabilities, there have been 11 documented presidents with disabilities and seven have had learning disabilities, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy.

You can say all you want about Trump, but I do not believe he could have brought our country together like Washington or Lincoln did. He is showing he does not know how to get us through a war with class like those greats did.

Trump decided to strike low against Newsom and while probably not meaning to, he degraded a whole group of people who have been attacked enough by their society and peers; now the president of the United States believes you cannot run this country. 

A lot of people were watching these comments with absolute horror and disgust, because even if you do not have a disability or know someone with a disability, the majority of us have a conscience and a sense of right and wrong…this is plain wrong.

Lauryn Muller, an incoming Auburn University freshman who has recently received national recognition for her response to Trump’s comments, has dyslexia and gave Collin Binkley from AP News her thoughts:

“We’ve had to overcome so many deficits, and for someone to, on a national stage, say, yeah, they will never be like us — that definitely came as an emotional sting to me,” said Muller.

Muller’s mom is a three-time Trump voter and says she still supports his politics.

People with disabilities, including myself, deal with enough self-doubt, and we do not need powerful people like the president to tell us that we cannot do something. This has set the progress of people dealing with these disabilities back for generations. When people say they want to have a position of power for this administration, they will be asked if they have a learning disability and how it affects them.

No one deserves to be told that they cannot do a job or they are not up to a job. That is their decision alone, and should not involve their status of disability. People will say a lot of mean and hurtful things in this world, but it should not come from people we trust with making powerful decisions.

When you think back to Trump’s comments, do not let the hatred consume you; take a step back and be thankful you do not think or feel the way he does. People with differing abilities can do anything we set our minds to; it is time to show the world that our minds are set on change.