For Those With Stutters, Trump Mocking Biden's Stammer Is Frustratingly Familiar

When actor and disability advocate Marc Winski heard former President Donald Trump mock President Joe Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally earlier this month, he wasn’t entirely surprised.

“I’m gonna bring the country t-t-t-together,” Trump said, mocking Biden’s recent State of the Union address at a rally in Rome, Georgia, last weekend.

It wasn’t the first time Trump had poked fun at Biden’s lifelong struggle with stuttering ― or even someone’s disability. During his 2016 presidential run, Trump infamously imitated Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter who has arthrogryposis, a condition that limits joint functioning. (Trump claimed that he was only pantomiming a “groveling” reporter with his jerking hand movements.)

So while Winski wasn’t surprised at Trump’s latest gaffe, he was disappointed, especially when he heard the audience’s reaction.

“What bothered me the most were the cheers, laughter, and applause given from the audience,” Winski told HuffPost. “That was appalling and showed that further education is needed. Nobody should be mocking another person’s disability. Period.”

Between 6 and 8 million people in the United States have some kind of language impairment, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

For Winski ― and many like him ― that plays out in stuttering, a speech disorder characterized by repetition of sounds, syllables, or words and interruptions and involuntary lengthening of speech. Mentally, those with stutters generally experience tension and negative feelings about talking, avoiding raising their hands in class or signing up for activities that would involve lots of socializing.

Because it’s so hard to mask, it’s not uncommon for those who stutter