Fascism taking flight on a disability runway: analyzing Trump's disability degradation in turbulent times

Tanya Titchkosky

Chapter 1 in Disability in a Turbulent Era, 2026, pp 11-23 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter asks how we can continue doing disability studies and support global well-being when governments and leaders use disability to fuel fear, spread chaos, and seek authoritarian control. As the Powerful treat disabled people as naturally inferior and use this to support harmful, fascist-style rule over institutions and the public, the question of how critical inquiry should proceed rises again. I make use of one example of how US President (2025–2029) Donald Trump spoke about disability to explain a deadly mid-air crash. On January 30, 2025, the President suggested that disabled workers caused the air crash and said they (we) were dangerous to employ. I show how Trump used and, thus, supports a worldview that sees disabled people as inferior so as to publicly degrade anyone who saw disability differently from him. Fascist rule needs one singular viewpoint to rule and attempts to kill off all alternative ways of thinking, knowing, and being. By critically engaging with views such as Trump's and telling new stories that open other perspectives, such as care, connection, and critical creativity, disability studies can help resist destructive politics and make more supportive pluralistic communities.

Keywords: Disability degradation; Fascism; Interpretation; Plurality of perspectives; Trump (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035347247
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