--- title: Donald Trump Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With Disability description: The Republican presidential candidate had come under fire for appearing to mock a reporter who suffers from a joint condition canonical: https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-27T13:31:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:09.939Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With Disability og:description: The Republican presidential candidate had come under fire for appearing to mock a reporter who suffers from a joint condition og:url: https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-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 Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With Disability twitter:description: The Republican presidential candidate had come under fire for appearing to mock a reporter who suffers from a joint condition 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 Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With 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=c103ac03-411d-444e-81d8-adc0418b570a&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 [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 27, 2015 1:31 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 27, 2015 1:31 PM UTC Donald Trump accused a New York _Times_ journalist of “using his disability to grandstand” and denied mocking the reporter’s joint condition during a campaign rally in South Carolina on Tuesday. Trump was widely criticized after he blasted Serge Kovaleski for his comments on an article he wrote after the 9/11 attacks for the _Washington Post_, which Trump had used to back up controversial claims that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the collapse of the World Trade Center in 2001\. On stage, Trump waved his arms around with his hands at an odd angle in an apparent impression of Kovaleski, whose disability affects his arms. Kovaleski told CNN 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.” “I have no idea who this reporter, Serge Kovalski \[sic\], is, what he looks like or his level of intelligence,” Trump said in a [campaign statement](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/669980142475845632) issued Thursday afternoon. “Despite having one of the all-time great memories, I certainly do not remember him.” Trump demanded an apology from the _Times_ and added ““Kovaleski must think a lot of himself if he thinks I remember him from decades ago — if I ever met him at all, which I doubt I did. He should stop using his disability to grandstand and get back to reporting for a paper that is rapidly going down the tubes.” Kovaleski said in an interview earlier this week that he’s confident Trump remembers him and his condition. \[[_Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-denies-mocking-journalist-with-disability--and-demands-an-apology/2015/11/26/797e011c-9492-11e5-b5e4-279b4501e8a6%5Fstory.html)\] ## Transcript Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has said some pretty harsh things throughout his campaign. They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists and some, I assume, are good people. But mocking a New York Times reporter with a disability might be one of his worst. It was written by a nice reporter, now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy, I don't know what I said. I don't remember. He's gone like, I don't remember, maybe that's what I said. Trump was referring to journalist Serge Kovalevsky who has a chronic condition that affects how his arms move. More specifically, Trump was referring to Kovalevsky's September 18th, 2011 article at Washington Post. And holding tailgate on all parties on rooftops. While they watched the devastation on the other side of the river, okay. Washington Post. Trump's used the article multiple times to defend his claims that he saw thousands of people celebrating the 9 / 11 attacks. I watched, in Jersey City, New Jersey. Where thousands and thousands of people were cheering. I saw it. It was on television. You saw it with your own eyes? I saw it. George, it did happen. Please say it didn't happen. There were people that were cheering. But Kovalevsky and The Washington Post have come out in defense of the article. Cool, saying a number of people doesn't mean thousands as Trump suggests he saw. The New York Times released a strongly worded statement after Trump's comments about Kovaleski, saying we think it's outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With Disability","datePublished":"2015-11-27T13:31:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:09.939Z","description":"The Republican presidential candidate had come under fire for appearing to mock a reporter who suffers from a joint condition","url":"https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/","keywords":["2016 presidential 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":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"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":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/","name":"Donald Trump Says He Didn't Mock Journalist With 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/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/","duration":"PT1M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4128128/donald-trump-kovaleski-journalist-disability/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```