--- title: Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability description: At a rally, the Republican frontrunner appeared to mock the disability of a New York Times reporter canonical: https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-26T13:51:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:09.567Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability og:description: At a rally, the Republican frontrunner appeared to mock the disability of a New York Times reporter og:url: https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf120d00e044154a/698872df3c163928cc45aebf/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at an event at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability twitter:description: At a rally, the Republican frontrunner appeared to mock the disability of a New York Times reporter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf120d00e044154a/698872df3c163928cc45aebf/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=d07c6caf-4c0e-42a6-b611-257514ba95c5&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Mocks A Reporter With A Disability [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Mocks A Reporter With A Disability](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Pt20J8gQ.m3u8) (1:30)  _Published 2015-11-26. Presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition that affects how his arms move._ by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 26, 2015 1:51 PM UTC Presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition that affects how his arms move. by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Nov 26, 2015 1:51 PM UTC Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump [came under fire ](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-34930042)for mocking New York _Times_ reporter Serge Kovaleski, who suffers from a congenital joint condition, at a campaign rally in South Carolina this week. Kovaleski was one of the authors of a [_Washington Post_ report ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/18/northern-new-jersey-draws-probers-eyes/40f82ea4-e015-4d6e-a87e-93aa433fafdc/)from 2001 that Trump had used to support his controversial claim that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheered as the World Trade Center collapsed in 2001\. Law enforcement and government officials who were in New Jersey at that time have discredited Trump’s assertion and the _Post_ has added a [disclaimer](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/09/18/northern-new-jersey-draws-probers-eyes/40f82ea4-e015-4d6e-a87e-93aa433fafdc/) to the article. Kovaleski told CNN earlier this week that he did “not recall anyone saying there were thousands, or even hundreds, of people celebrating. That was not the case, as best as I can remember.” At a South Carolina rally on Tuesday, Trump waved his arms around with his hands at an odd angle in an apparent impression of Kovaleski, whose condition affects his arms. “Now the poor guy, you gotta see this guy,” he said. “Uhh I don’t know what I said. Uhh I don’t remember. He’s going like ‘I don’t remember. Maybe that’s what I said.'” “The sad part about it is, it didn’t in the slightest bit jar or surprise me that Donald Trump would do something this low-rent, given his track record,” Kovaleski told the [_Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/11/25/trump-blasted-by-new-york-times-after-mocking-reporter-with-disability/)_._ The _Times_ also blasted Trump’s comments in a statement: “We think it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters,” a spokesman said. ## Transcript [00:00] Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has said some [00:02] pretty harsh things throughout his campaign. They're [00:05] bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists [00:09] and some, I assume, are good people. But mocking a New [00:12] York Times reporter with a disability might be one of his [00:15] worst. It was written by a nice reporter, now the poor guy, [00:17] you ought to see this guy, I don't know what I said. I don't [00:21] remember. He's gone like, I don't remember, maybe that's [00:25] what I said. Trump was referring to journalist Serge [00:28] Kovalevsky who has a chronic condition that affects how [00:31] his arms move. More specifically, Trump was referring to [00:35] Kovalevsky's September 18th, 2011 article at Washington [00:38] Post. And holding tailgate on all parties on rooftops. [00:44] While they watched the devastation on the other [00:48] side of the river, okay. Washington Post. [00:52] Trump's used the article multiple times to defend his claims [00:55] that he saw thousands of people celebrating the 9 / 11 [00:58] attacks. I watched, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Where [01:01] thousands and thousands of people [01:06] were cheering. I saw it. It was on television. You saw it with [01:08] your own eyes? I saw it. George, it did happen. Please say [01:10] it didn't happen. There were people that were cheering. But [01:12] Kovalevsky and The Washington Post have come out in [01:15] defense of the article. Cool, saying a number of people [01:18] doesn't mean thousands as Trump suggests he saw. The [01:21] New York Times released a strongly worded statement [01:23] after Trump's comments about Kovaleski, saying we think [01:26] it's outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of [01:29] one of our reporters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability","datePublished":"2015-11-26T13:51:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:09.567Z","description":"At a rally, the Republican frontrunner appeared to mock the disability of a New York Times reporter","url":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/","keywords":["2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf120d00e044154a/698872df3c163928cc45aebf/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf120d00e044154a/698872df3c163928cc45aebf/donald-trump8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at an event at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach","caption":"U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to supporters at an event at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in Myrtle Beach","creditText":"Randall Hill—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/","name":"Donald Trump Under Fire for Mocking Reporter's Disability"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Donald Trump Mocks A Reporter With A Disability","description":"Presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a chronic condition that affects how his arms move.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Pt20J8gQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-11-26T14:53:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Pt20J8gQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4127857/donald-trump-disability/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```