US President Trump asserts dyslexia should disqualify candidates for president
Should we have seen this coming?
US President Donald J. Trump said that a person who has learning disabilities should be president or the US in comments made 16 March 2026 in remarks to reporters in the White House Oval Office. These comments apparently are a reaction to the California Governor Gavin Newsom’s remarks about his own dyslexia; see coverage of those remarks in “California governor’s dyslexia in the news (again)” 15 March 2026.
Louis Casiano of Fox News reported Mr. Trumps under the headline “Trump questions Newsom’s fitness for White House, citing his dyslexia: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has spoken publicly about his learning disability and is widely believed to have White House ambitions” (16 March 2026). This was his lede:
President Donald Trump on Monday questioned California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fitness for higher office, citing his learning disability.
Trump was speaking with reporters in the Oval Office when he talked about requiring identification to vote in elections and the resistance from Newsom and other Democratic elected officials.
“That’s how crazy it’s gotten with a low IQ person, you know, because Gavin Newsom has admitted…that he has learning disabilities,” Trump said. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities. But not for my president…I think a president should not have learning disabilities.”
C-SPAN published a video capture of the relevant part of President Trump’s remarks:
The comments have been covered by many news organizations, including the BBC, CNN, Los Angeles Times, New York Times,1 USA Today, and others.
The National Center for Learning Disabilities descried the comments in a statement released 16 March 2026. In “NCLD Statement Responding to Administration Remarks About Learning Disabilities,” the organization condemned the comments in unequivocal terms:
The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) is disturbed by and strongly condemns recent remarks by the Administration suggesting that any individual with a learning disability should not serve as president. We believe the statement to be both factually and morally incorrect. We are deeply troubled by these negative and stigmatizing remarks that perpetuate the false stereotypes that people with learning disabilities and their families have been working to change for decades.
I searched the Web sites of other organizations (Council for Exceptional Children, Council for Learning Disabilities, Division for Learning Disabilities, International Dyslexia Association). As of 10 PM 17 March 2026, I did not find statements by those organizations.
The Times also ran a story “Creative, Quick and Not ‘Dumb’ at All: What It’s Like to Have Dyslexia: As many as 20 percent of Americans have dyslexia, a learning disorder that is not connected to IQ” by Simar Bajaj and Christian Caron. It has a photo of Governor Newsom but does not reference President. Trump’s remarks, but the timing was fitting.
This just infuriates me. The more I think about it, the madder I get. There needs to be more statements coming out from CEC, DLD, ILA, Congress, etc. in support of people with dyslexia and denouncing what the "person" occupying the White House said. I try really hard not to be a person who wishes violence on anyone else but I really hope that the "person" occupying the White House has a pebble in his shoe forever and that he always gets zapped by static when being touched.