WASHINGTON – About a year after Donald Trump mocked a disabled reporter during a campaign rally, a number of disabled people at his inauguration Friday enthusiastically cheered him as the new president, saying they trust him to make sure their rights are not diminished.
“I know Mr. Trump has said some awful things during the campaign and will say some more awful things as president, but he has his heart in the right place,” said Gary Alden, 71, who was in a wheelchair because he is unable to walk well. His nephew, Alan Thomas, 35, also was in a wheelchair, and agreed that Trump’s flailing gestures to mock the reporter’s disability symptoms weren’t offensive.
“I just don’t think he’s that mean,” Thomas said.
The pair, from Rock Hill, South Carolina, first saw Trump at a rally at Winthrop University.
“He was saying all the right things,” Alden said. “He just wasn’t saying them very nicely.”
John Simon, 78, watching Trump being sworn in as the 45th president from his wheelchair in front of the Capitol near the stage, also wasn’t offended by Trump’s actions in mimicking the uncontrolled arm movements caused by the reporter’s disability.
Like Alden and Thomas, he does not believe Trump would discriminate against disabled people as president.
“He is the man!” Simon said as he watched his first inauguration in person. “I believe in the man. He has done what no other man could have dreamt of: beat both parties.”
At least one in five Americans is affected by some form of disability. About half of people with disabilities voted for Trump, according to a November poll conducted by Respectability USA, an advocacy group for the rights of disabled persons.
The disabled men sitting near the stage where Trump was sworn in were among those voters. But they voted for the GOP nominee because of his policies on the economy, jobs and trade; they didn’t factor in concerns about disability rights because they didn’t believe he would change things for the worse.
What tipped Thomas and Alden to Trump was their dislike of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, especially because she would have continued the policies of President Barack Obama.
“I couldn’t fathom the prospects of Obama’s policies being carried on,” Alden said with tears streaming down his cheeks. “His Middle Eastern policy, what he’s done in Syria. He didn’t help people who were most in need.”
Alden, a retired Navy officer who worked for the National Security Agency from 1966 to 1970, believes Trump has the answers to America’s foreign policy woes.
“He has drawn together an incredible cabinet and will address most of the problems we face today,” he hoped.
Also in a wheelchair, John Cofer, 63, listened to Alden’s fierce support for Trump and laughed. An avid Clinton supporter and lifelong Democrat, Cofer was attending his fourth inauguration, including both of those for President Obama. “I’ve got a better seat this time,” he chuckled, tapping his wheelchair. “A lot less excitement, though.”
“With Obama, there was a sense of hope among the crowd,” he explained. “With this man, there’s… focus,” he said, pausing to select his word.
“The best part of this ceremony is how two people on opposite sides can come together and celebrate,” he said, tapping Alden on the back.
Cofer did take exception to Trump’s incident with the disabled reporter, but said he still wished him success as president.
“After all, he is our president,” he said.
As people in wheelchairs arrived at the security checkpoints for the Inauguration ceremony, they were escorted by inaugural personnel to their seating areas. Ramps had been set up at any uneven point in the ground or sidewalks.
Cofer said of the four inaugurations he’d attended, this was the most wheelchair accessible.
“This was the best in terms of arrangements,” he said, Alden and Thomas nodding in agreement.