Content warning: This article repeatedly quotes right-wing figures using an ableist slur.
Former President Donald Trump recently and falsely claimed that opponent Vice President Kamala Harris was born “mentally impaired” and is “mentally disabled.” The remarks followed numerous Trump media allies, including Fox’s Greg Gutfeld and podcaster Laura Loomer, attacking Harris with an ableist slur.
Trump has repeatedly claimed during campaign rallies that Harris has a mental disability, including saying of her and the Biden administration’s immigration policy: “If you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country.”
The American Association of People with Disabilities criticized Trump’s remarks. Pro-Trump media figures cheered them.
Pro-Trump podcasters Benny Johnson and Laura Loomer, who has close ties to Trump, responded with laughing emojis. Podcaster Shawn Farash wrote: “Is there anyone funnier than Donald Trump?” Conservative social media personality Gunther Eagleman wrote: “Trump doing what Trump does best, calling it as he sees it. … We are so back!” And podcaster Alec Lace wrote: “Never Forget: The same people who told you for years that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack are now telling you Kamala Harris is smart!”
Trump’s remarks didn’t occur in a vacuum. Since Harris became the Democratic nominee, right-wing media have repeatedly attempted to portray her as mentally disabled, including by referring to her with an ableist slur. Below are numerous examples from the past few months.
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld, who recently hosted Trump, has called Harris a “r--ed version of Mister Rogers.” He also said that Harris “speaks like a r-ed Hallmark card.” (Fox has claimed it is “committed to providing a workplace that treats all employees with dignity and respect and is free from all forms of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation,” including regarding “mental disability.”)
Loomer said on her program of Harris: “Maybe we have a DEI r-- sitting in the White House with Joe Biden as his brain continues to rot away, and that's what happens when you put people in office because they're DEI r--s. Yeah. She can't talk, just like Joe Biden. She doesn't have dementia. She's just r--ed.” Loomer also wrote after Harris posted about being briefed on Hurricane Helene: “Kamala Harris is literally R--ed.”
Online troll Brenden Dilley, who has connections with the Trump campaign and other Republicans, has repeatedly used ableist language to attack Harris, including writing: “Kamala Harris is fucking r--ed,” and, “Tomorrow night, Donald Trump is going to mop the floor with one of the worst DEI hires in American history, Kamala Harris. Everything she has ever ‘earned’ is going to be invalidated after regular America finds out how fucking r--ed she truly is.”
Online streamer David Freiheit (“VivaFrei”), who has hosted Trump running mate and Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), wrote: “Kamala Harris is fucking r--ed. And if you vote for her, so are you.”
Social media misinformer Ian Miles Cheong wrote of Harris: “This woman is r--ed and has a very low IQ. It is a miracle she’s managed to fail upwards as much as anyone could ever fail upwards in the history of failing upwards. No, it’s not misogynistic to say that.”