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Trump Said Some Disabled People – Including His Young Relative – Should Just ‘Die’: Nephew

In the Oval Office in May of 2020, then-President Donald Trump told his nephew some disabled people “should just die,” and later suggested maybe he “should just let him die and move down to Florida.”
That’s according to “All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way,” a new book by Fred C. Trump III, former president Donald Trump’s nephew, via excerpts published in TIME magazine on Wednesday.
Fred Trump explained that in 1999, his own son was born with “infantile spasms, a rare seizure disorder which in William’s case altered his development physically and cognitively.” When his uncle became President, he “recognized what a highly privileged position” he would be in, including having “some access to the White House. And as long as that was true, I wanted to make sure I used that access for something positive.”
His wife Lisa reached out to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and White House senior advisor, who put them in touch with Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson. After several meetings and apparently a good deal of progress and consensus, under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, a group including Azar, his Asst. Secretary Brett Giroir, and Fred Trump, went into the Oval Office to talk with the President.
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As they were leaving the 45-minute meeting during which Trump “seemed genuinely curious regarding the depth of medical needs across the U.S. and the individual challenges these families faced,” Fred Trump said, “Donald’s assistant caught up with me. ‘Your uncle would like to see you,’ she said.”
After some pleasantries, Fred Trump writes, his uncle “sounded interested and even concerned. I thought he had been touched by what the doctor and advocates in the meeting had just shared about their journey with their patients and their own family members. But I was wrong.”
“ ‘Those people . . . ‘ Donald said, trailing off. ‘The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.’ “
Fred Trump writes he “turned and walked away.”
At some point, in 2020 or later, Fred Trump says a family medical fund established by his Uncle Robert Trump was growing depleted. It was being managed by Eric Trump, who suggested the former President’s nephew talk to him to ask for help.
While “at Briarcliff Manor, home of the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y.,” Fred saw his uncle talking. Not wanting to disturb him, he called him later that afternoon.
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Explaining how expenses were growing as was resistance from some other family members to help, Fred Trump told him, “We may need your help with this. Eric wanted me to give you a call.”
“Donald took a second as if he was thinking about the whole situation,” Fred writes.
“ ‘I don’t know,’ he finally said, letting out a sigh. ‘He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.’ “
Donald Trump’s alleged remarks comport with those he has made in the past, including publicly mocking a reporter with a disability, considered in 2016 to be his “worst” offense, NBC News reported.
Trump reportedly also said he did not want any disabled veterans , and called disabled veterans “suckers” and “losers.”
While president, according to the New York Post, Trump allegedly made disparaging “remarks at a welcome ceremony for Gen. Mark Milley at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in 2019, after Army Capt. Luis Avila, who was severely wounded in Afghanistan, sang ‘God Bless America,’ the Atlantic reported.”
“Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded,” Trump allegedly told Milley.
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