# WAS Trump actually mocking that disabled reporter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 7, 2017, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851 "2017-12-07T23:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/101 "2017-12-13T01:19:20Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Some of us are born trailer trash, others achieve it. For me, its a step up. ^^^ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Nylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/77aa72/32.png) [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/102 "2017-12-13T01:58:56Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Its kinda half way between camping out and being Settled. We have some nice young men in a motorcycle club just down the way. Science enthusiasts, often see them unloading complex glass tubing and beakers. Finicky, too, never smoke indoors, always go outside, sometimes twenty, thirty yards away before they light up… Sounds like they’re working on Yang-Mills existence and mass gap but making it look like a meth lab so nobody steals their work. Academia can be brutal like that. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2017, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/103 "2017-12-13T20:38:50Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > HA HA HA oh God, you’re actually serious, even after viewing yet another “carefully edited” FoxNews clip with manufactured narrative. No, no worse than the democrats on this board who CONSTANTLY claim I follow fox news. What is it with you lefties who think anyone who disagrees with you watches Fox news. Do you all have Fox on the brain or something. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/104 "2017-12-14T02:37:47Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > That’s not moving the goalposts; it’s characterizing one of the positions under discussion. Either Trump is an asshole for specifically mocking this reporter’s disability or this is a more generalized mocking gesture he makes all the time because he’s an asshole. Those are pretty much the only options. Perhaps. But the question of this thread, fairly posited, is was Trump knowingly mocking this reporter’s disability? It’s not whether Trump is an asshole. There are tens of threads taking the latter position and it is not on topic for this thread. I think it is clear that when he uses the same pantomime when mocking the insurance adjuster and also Ted Cruz, that is pretty compelling evidence that this is a schtick that he uses to show someone who is flustered. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/105 "2017-12-14T03:41:57Z")
> [@UltraVires](#): > > Perhaps. But the question of this thread, fairly posited, is was Trump knowingly mocking this reporter’s disability? It’s not whether Trump is an asshole. There are tens of threads taking the latter position and it is not on topic for this thread. > > I think it is clear that when he uses the same pantomime when mocking the insurance adjuster and also Ted Cruz, that is pretty compelling evidence that this is a schtick that he uses to show someone who is flustered. So he knowingly mocks people who are flustered? Including this reporter who also happened to be disabled? ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/106 "2017-12-14T05:47:05Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > So he knowingly mocks people who are flustered? Including this reporter who also happened to be disabled? The question was not was he mocking the reporter. He clearly was. The accusation was that he was mocking the reporter’s disability. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/107 "2017-12-14T06:21:08Z")
Having seen both the video mocking Cruz and the video mocking Kovaleski, I’ve concluded this: Trump mocks people by using spastic gestures with awkwardly curved wrists; in other words, his idea of mocking someone is to act as if that person has the sort of spasticity that is common among people with certain kinds of disabilities. Apparently he thinks that acting as if that person has a type of disability that includes spastic activity makes his target seem laughable. So every time he mocked someone that way, he was actually mocking EVERYONE with that type of disability. Hardly a step up. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/108 "2017-12-14T13:15:31Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > No, no worse than the democrats on this board who CONSTANTLY claim I follow fox news. > > What is it with you lefties who think anyone who disagrees with you watches Fox news. Do you all have Fox on the brain or something. I was referring to the clip referred to upthread several times, but methinks the fellow protests too much. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/109 "2017-12-14T13:31:12Z")
Here is [John Lennon](https://youtu.be/sdnrFUHdYpg) mocking the disabled in 1965 (he was rather notorious for this). See his hands? Clawed and spastic? That is a rather common affection for people who mock the disabled. Just like the question “did Trump mean ‘sex’ when he said the Senator would ‘do anything’?”, this debate is rather silly. Of course he was, and John Lennon would agree. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/110 "2017-12-14T13:37:43Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > So every time he mocked someone that way, he was actually mocking EVERYONE with that type of disability. Hardly a step up. That’s a fair point. If this is a standard way of mockery for him, he’s still mocking the disabled reporter _every time he does this_. In a way it seems less stinging because it’s not so personal but in a way it’s worse because he’s saying “they’re so incompetent that they may as well be _disabled_ :eek: !” in a way that implies it’s even worse than being incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/111 "2017-12-14T15:25:05Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > That’s a fair point. If this is a standard way of mockery for him, he’s still mocking the disabled reporter _every time he does this_. In a way it seems less stinging because it’s not so personal but in a way it’s worse because he’s saying “they’re so incompetent that they may as well be _disabled_ :eek: !” in a way that implies it’s even worse than being incompetent. And this from the leader of the free world. History will not be kind to President Chump. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/112 "2017-12-14T15:46:31Z")
Really, showing that he does a “spaz” action when mocking other people does not help his image. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/113 "2017-12-14T16:56:24Z")
Well, sure it matters, it means that he wasn’t deliberately mocking the disability, he just doesn’t give a shit whether he does or not. Major distinction. malice and indifference. ---
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/114 "2017-12-14T19:01:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Well, sure it matters, it means that he wasn’t deliberately mocking the disability, he just doesn’t give a shit whether he does or not. Major distinction. malice and indifference. Still mocking though. I don’t recall Obama mocking anyone during his eight years as President. That’s the point. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851/115 "2017-12-14T19:06:51Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > Still mocking though. I don’t recall Obama mocking anyone during his eight years as President. That’s the point. There was that one memorable night in 2011. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-trump-actually-mocking-that-disabled-reporter/803851.md?page=5)