Illustration by Mother Jones; Niall Carson/PA Wire/Zuma; Courtesy of Fred Trump

Donald Trump’s nephew Fred Trump III does not expect this time to be invited to his uncle’s inauguration. After all, he wrote a book calling out some of the president-elect’s unsavory behavior, including that of Donald telling Fred that he should let her disabled son, William, die.

But Fred Trump still plans to spend time in Washington, D.C., in the coming years to advance the disability issue. “I joke that there are two things Donald and I share: the love of golf and we are both relentless,” Fred said. This determination also led him to start an advocacy nonprofit to fight for better care for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with his wife Lisa.

In an interview with Mother JonesFred said his uncle’s increasing use of the phrase “mentally disabled” and the R-word to describe his opponent Kamala Harris in the weeks leading up to the election reflected his harmful views on disability.

Noting Harris’s intelligence in response, Fred said it was still not a criticism of Trump: “It doesn’t matter. You don’t tell anyone.

And it’s not just Donald that Fred is angry with: it’s also the reaction of his uncle’s supporters. They laughed again and again when Trump turned disability into a cruel joke, Fred noted, just as they laughed when Trump mocked New York Times the disability of journalist Serge Kovaleski in 2015.

Fred thinks the Harris-Walz campaign could have emphasized disability issues a lot more; He saw the campaign fail when it came to engaging with disability organizations, he said, and as the father of a disabled youth, Fred was disheartened that Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz did not address the issue during his debate with Vice President-elect JD Vance.

“Tim Walz doesn’t even mention the word disability,” Fred said. “You have a disabled child, who became a real guide during the convention, and I was there to witness it. »

But unlike some people opposed to Donald Trump’s presidency, Fred considers questioning the election itself a waste of time. Instead, he urged, people opposed to the new administration should quickly “commit to whatever cause is important to you.”