Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 11 – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he’ll be working on a plan to provide more opportunities for autistic adults to work.
Jane, a self-described autistic woman, asked Trump for a plan to help “autistic adults like myself get employed.”
“We’re going to work on it,” he replied on Saturday in Clear Lake, Iowa. “You’ll be happy. Just watch.”
Trump’s proclamation comes days after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton unveiled her plan focusing on autism, including calls for public-private partnerships to help young adults with autism become employed.
Fully one-in-five Americans have a disability, and polls show that most of them want to work. Yet 70 percent of working-age Americans with disabilities are outside of the workforce. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of 68 children is on the Autism spectrum.
Trump’s statement follows his mocking of a reporter with a disability in November and repeated claims that vaccines administered according to the recommended schedule cause autism.
“Autism has become an epidemic,” Trump said during a CNN Republican Debate in September. “Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control. I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time.”
Even though experts including Ari Ne’eman, president of Autistic Self Advocacy Network, have shown a wealth of scientific evidence debunking any link between autism and vaccinations, Trump has a history of making these claims.
“My theory is the shots,” Trump said in 2007. “We’ve giving these massive injections at one time, and I really think it does something to the children.”
Trump has promised to make “spreading them out” as part of his presidential agenda.
If I were President I would push for proper vaccinations but would not allow one time massive shots that a small child cannot take – AUTISM.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2014
Yet he has not talked about plans to help people with disabilities obtain employment. As a candidate running on his jobs record, Trump could interest the disability community with a specific plan on jobs for people with disabilities.
What is Donald Trump’s plan to help families raising children, teens and adults with autism?
forced to wonder the same thing i have aspergers which is a form of autism i already seen how people tend to treat me with fear these days to the point i am denied rights of visitation with my son after ex died parental rights skipped me and went to ex mother in law i hope laws change sometime where i can have more rights and i also worry with his new plans on mentally ill will it mean because people dont understand me i will be seen as a violent type and locked away
dosnt help my worries him having a founder of autism speaks on his side given that group spreads more fear about us then actually helping us
Donald Trump is an aspie. He has aspergers. High functioning. This is why he has no filter. No social boundaries. He says things he doesn’t do, but thinks that’s what someone else wants to hear, so he can “fit in.” David Brooks, from the New York Times, is a liar and a fraud. Brooks hides behind his reporter title to play “doctor.” Brooks had the temerity to insinuate that Trump was a narcissist, yet Brooks has NO EVIDENCE and isn’t a psychiatrist, so whatever he says about Trump, is his own BIAS opinion. Brooks is yet another WEAK man whom no woman, in her right mind, would want to associate with. On the otherhand, women like strong, aggressive men like Trump. Men who would grab us, toss on on the bed, grab our p^%$Y. Granted, this should be done with taste. Donald certainly messed up when he showed no respect for a married woman. But then again, Hillary’s husband, Bill, who would be living in white house again, if she’s elected, didn’t care about his marriage either.
[…] told a lady with autism who asked about practice skeleton for people with disabilities that “We’re going to work on it. You’ll be happy, usually watch,” reported a advocacy classification […]