Donald Trump pondered whether people with disabilities should be allowed to die during the Covid-19 pandemic, according his nephew's new book.
Fred Trump III, the brother of psychologist and author Mary Trump and the eldest son of Fred Trump Jr., writes in his forthcoming book, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, that he attended a May 2020 meeting with the former president, some top administration officials and disability rights advocates.
His uncle made the remark at the meeting, according to excerpts published by The Independent.
"Following the meeting, Fred III said he was ushered back into the Oval Office with his uncle and [Human Services Secretary Alex] Azar at the then-president’s request," the outlet reported. "His uncle greeted him: 'Hey, pal — how’s everything going?'"
The younger Trump told him things were "good" and thanked him for the meeting, and that's when the former president began thinking aloud about the topic of the 45-minute discussion they had just left.
“Those people ...” he said, trailing off, according to the book. “The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die."
His nephew wrote that, at the time, he “truly did not know what to say.”
Fred Trump III is keenly interested in the needs of those who have disabilities because his son, William Trump, was diagnosed as an infant with a rare seizure disorder that caused significant cognitive and physical damage, the report said.
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He took part in the meeting with other disability rights advocates, the former president, then-Health and Human Services secretary Azar and White House Covid task force member Dr. Brett Giroir.
The ex-president infamously mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a disability called arthrogryposis, during a Colorado speech early in his first presidential campaign in 2016, although he insists he was taunting the journalist for groveling and not mimicking the effects of that condition on his hand and wrist.
"Trump’s explanation in Colorado is simply not credible," wrote Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler in 2016. "First of all, we already confirmed that Kovaleski did not grovel or say he made a mistake. Moreover, Trump actually appears to paraphrase Kovaleski’s brief statement about not remembering that thousands of people celebrated. Trump now suggests he was just imitating a grovel, but that’s not what he was actually doing."
"Instead, Trump is clearly imitating Kovaleski’s disability — the reporter has arthrogryposis, which visibly limits the functioning of his joints," he added. "Trump claims he did not know Kovaleski, but the reporter closely covered Trump’s troubled business dealings while he was a reporter for the N.Y. Daily News between 1987 and 1993."
