More on Fred Trump

In The Politics of Autism, I discuss the issue's role in presidential campaigns. In this campaign, a number of posts have discussed Trump's support for the discredited notion that vaccines cause autism. He also has a bad record on disability issues more generally. .  He told his nephew Fred that severely disabled people -- such as Fred's son -- should "just die."

At The Independent, Sheila Flynn talks to Fred Trump:

“How could one human being say that about another human being, least of all his grand-nephew?” an incredulous Fred asks The Independent. “ I don’t know where that cruelty comes from, that deep, horrible cruelty … forget about William being my son, he was their brother’s grandson.”

Trump, in a typical statement highlighting his contributions to William’s fund, literally used the words “this is the thanks I get” after Fred went public. His son Eric also defended him.

“They never disputed that he said that, by the way,” Fred tells The Independent.

He’s made peace with sacrificing any future salvaging of their relationships if it means he can shine a spotlight on the needs of the disabled: better training for medical staff, better housing options, better pay for caregivers whose compensation, he writes, is too often “demeaning.”

“I have a national platform,” Fred says. “And I don’t mean to call people with disabilities the underdog, but, in many cases … these are people that are voiceless.

“There’s nobody out there just shouting from the rooftops, if you will, saying this needs to be done.”

He’s hopeful that Trump’s attitude towards the disabled – including those within his own family – might reveal his alleged true colors for some voters, though he’s fully aware of Trump’s inexplicably teflon history.