Trump and the GOP’s goal is to “exterminate” the disability community

These are the stakes!

“They want to exterminate us.”

Those were the blunt words of Steve Way—a long time disability rights activist—to describe Donald Trump and the GOP’s multi-front war targeting the disability community. Way—who was born with Muscular Dystrophy—explained that the GOP’s cutting $1 trillion dollars from Medicaid, gutting of the Department of Education and rolling back of protections for the disability community are all intended to make them “undesirable.” He added in a very matter of fact way, “They want to get rid of us,” that is why, “we need to call this for what it is: It's eugenics.” (You can watch my interview of Way below)

Way is not being over the top. As the Center for American Progress detailed in a recent report, “History will show the first six months of the second Trump administration as an all-out war against disabled people.” The only reason this isn’t a bigger issue is because corporate media has all but ignored it.

We’ve never seen such a laser focused effort by an administration to undermine the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—which just marked its 35^th anniversary--that ensured every American could participate fully in society. As Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif)--who is legally blind--explained to me, the Trump policies will at the very least lead to a more “segregated” society when it comes to those with disabilities.

One of the deadliest examples of Trump and GOP’s war on the disability community comes in the form of their heartless $1 trillion cut to Medicaid to fund a tax cut for their wealthy donors. Medicaid is a lifeline for more than 15 million Americans with disabilities--including 2.3 million children, 8 million working-age adults, and 4 million adults ages 65 and older.

As experts note, the GOP’s Medicaid cuts will inflict great pain on the disability community by reducing healthcare coverage, home health aides and more. Time recently explained, “These cuts translate into a forced retreat from independence, pushing individuals back into isolation and dependency, often in hospitals or costly, state-run institutions, directly contradicting the ADA's core tenets.”

Forcing disabled people into institutions as opposed to funding care for them to remain at home will literally kill people. That was the very point of Steve Way and other experts given that life expectancy in an institution is far lower than at home care. Yet that is what Trump and GOP knowingly voted to do.

That is not close to the end of Trump and GOP’s efforts to cruelly target the disability community. Trump’s gutting the Department of Education has undermined the guarantee that students with disabilities will be receiving free and appropriate public education. As Way noted, without the federal programs funded by the Department of Education, he would not have been talking to me that very day.

Rep. Simon raised that same issue. “I was one of those kids who needed the service provided by the federal government to ensure as a child in kindergarten that I had lessons to teach me to read braille,” she explained. But as Simon noted, by ending federal funding for these programs, there is simply no guarantee that individual states will have the funds needed to ensure other children will be provided these life changing services in the future. (Clip from my interview of Rep. Simon below.)

Overall, if Trump has his way to end the Department of Education, the result will be “forcing more disabled people out of their communities and into institutions”--per Center for American Progress.

Other facets of the Trump/GOP’s despicable war on the disabled community include ending federal programs that support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs also known as “DEIA.” Trump loves to drop the “A” from the full title to make it just “DEI” but the “A”—which stands for accessibility—has also been a GOP target. In fact, Trump took great pride when recently signing an executive order which mandates the elimination of all diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs throughout the federal government as well as federally funded programs outside the federal government.

The real-world impact of this cruelty is that “the elimination of DEIA funding, programs, services, and positions via this executive order is catastrophic for the disability community because its members are losing employment opportunities, accommodations support, and job protections.” That point made by Center for American Progress was backed up by Way and Rep. Simon.

Trump has also intentionally undermined Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act which provides that disabled people cannot be excluded from participating in federal programs or activities. Trump’s regime has instead “removed accessibility features” such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation during press briefings. He has also deleted 11 articles on guidance related to the ADA that helped stores, hotels and other businesses understand their obligations under the law. Obviously, Trump doesn’t want ADA guidelines to get in the way of his donors who own stores making a larger profit.

In addition to all of the above injustices, Trump has also gutted federal programs to ensure the disability community is not being discriminated against in violation of federal law. Examples include removing nearly half of the employees from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and 70 percent of the lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

In sum, as the Center for American Progress concisely put it: The Trump “administration has used every lever to remove the federal government’s ability to enforce disability civil rights laws; dismantle DEIA efforts that protect disabled people; undermine health care affordability and access for disabled people; destroy public health infrastructure; damage the ability of disabled children to receive free, appropriate public education; slash services, benefits, and regulations that help keep disabled people in their communities; and decrease disability protections in employment.”

Now you understand why Way said that Trump and the GOP are “telling us we're undesirable. That we're disposable.” And all of this as Way noted is laying the groundwork to “exterminate” his vulnerable community—just as the Nazis did after declaring those with disabilities as being “useless” to society.

In other times in our nation’s history, such a comparison might seem over the top. But given what we’ve seem from Trump and his far-right regime, history is warning us of where this may be heading. This is yet another reason we must keep fighting against Trump and his right wing regime until we have taken back our country!

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