Donald Trump got here beneath hearth — and rightfully so — 10 years in the past when he crassly mocked a disabled New York Occasions reporter.
On Saturday, Trump bought slapped with a little bit of payback when a gaggle of protesters dubbing themselves the Disabled Resistance invaded the glitzy foyer of Trump Tower and staged a raucous rally that went on a bit longer than common for such affairs.
A complete of an estimated 17 disabled demonstrators entrenched themselves close to the notorious golden escalator, chanting slogans like “Wadda we do when we’re under attack! We roll up! We fight back!”
The date was not random however, in actual fact, the thirty fifth anniversary of the People With Disabilities Act — a milestone for the disabled group that, the protesters gratefully famous, was signed into legislation by one other Republican president, one they admire for it, George H.W. Bush.
However they angrily stated the nation’s present GOP government is aiming to roll again the hard-won beneficial properties of the laws, equivalent to by way of cuts to Medicaid.
Round half of the 17 protesters had been in wheelchairs or scooters, which made police have to determine a protected and accessible approach to arrest those that refused to go away, in the long run, round 11 of them.
Whereas some lament that Trump appears unstoppable, the feisty disabled activists succeeded in shutting down Trump Tower, at the very least for some time, as police cordoned off the whole blockfront outdoors the gleaming edifice and rolled the gate down over its rear entrance.
In the long run, an MTA bus was introduced in to remove the protesters who refused police orders to go away that had been repeatedly blared at them in an audio recording.
“We refuse to allow our people to be hurt by cruel cuts to vital social programs like Medicaid for the benefit of billionaires,” they stated, in a press release. “We refuse to permit the legal guidelines that we fiercely and tirelessly labored to get handed to be obliterated within the mindless dismantling of the American authorities and American democracy.
“We are activists who have been made stronger by the experience of living with a disability in an ableist world. We are not afraid. We are ready to fight harder than we ever have fought before, and we invite all people of good conscience to join us.”
Morgan Moore, a spokesperson for the protesters, added, “We’re demonstrating for truthful pay. We’re demonstrating for truthful pay for our residence care employees and well being care employees that deal with folks with disabilities and the, you understand, the help that they want.
“We want to make sure that there’s money for home care and not just shunting people into nursing homes. You know that there are so many aspects of people’s lives with disabilities that are being impacted by this administration.”
Police didn’t instantly verify the variety of arrests.
Initially Printed: July 26, 2025 at 9:55 PM EDT
