Fred C. Trump III has been hoping this moment would arrive for more than 20 years — a moment when he can leverage his polarizing last name to advocate for the disabled community on behalf of his 25-year-old son, William, who has complications from a rare genetic mutation. Fred, a nephew of former President Donald Trump, recently entered the spotlight with the release of his book, All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, in which he describes growing up in the Trump dynasty and details his experience raising a child with "complex" intellectual and developmental disabilities.
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00:00William is the most courageous and inspirational person I've met.
00:04He's 25 years old, has complex disabilities, and he opened the door for me to really advocate
00:11on behalf of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
00:30I attended an event sponsored by the American Association of People with Disabilities, and
00:47at the end I had the opportunity to speak, and the first words out of my mouth were,
00:52I can't believe how humbling it is for me to be here.
00:55I also had the opportunity to meet Representative Debbie Dingell and Senator Tom Harkin, who
01:00was the lead sponsor in the Senate when George H.W. Bush put forward the ADA, and he and
01:07I pledged to work together in doing that.
01:11What doesn't get talked about enough is what people go through when they find out in the
01:18beginning.
01:19There's something I read years ago, pretty much 20 years ago.
01:24Someone said, you know, parents don't expect or want to have a child who's blind or who
01:30has a genetic mutation or who has autism.
01:33What my wife Lisa and I tried to do in the book is let folks know what opportunities
01:39there are to gain knowledge on how to deal with the issues that you're presented with
01:46that you didn't expect.
01:49You talk about life-changing, when you have a child who has hundreds of seizures a day
01:53like William did, where did they come from, why were they here?
01:57It literally took Lisa 15 years of investigation through the internet and such to find out
02:03that he had a genetic mutation called KCNQ2.
02:08It's tiring, it's exhausting, but they're your children, and if that's what you're presented
02:15with, you deal with it and you move on.
02:18They're human beings.
02:19They have thoughts and dreams and they have meaning.
02:22Unfortunately, a lot of that is not manifested in any way that is positive.
02:29It's more, let's just get through the day.
02:32William, as you may know, is in a wheelchair.
02:34He needs assistance with everything he does, but there's somebody within him.
02:40There is.
02:41There's something he could do within the community to help.
02:44It's just not available, and that's something that needs to be worked on.
02:51Whether it's a potential Trump administration or a potential Harris administration, we're
02:55going to hold their feet to the fire.
02:57The three things that I look at are caregiver.
03:01Caregiver funding, these people aren't making a lot of money, yet they're taking care of
03:07your child, your brother, your sister, or your parents.
03:10They have kids of their own.
03:12They probably have two jobs, if not three.
03:16Second is housing.
03:17There is no one model that fits any disability community.
03:22The third is prevention.
03:23Prevention is the key.
03:25Medical students are not trained in treating babies or young people who have autism or
03:32Down syndrome or genetic mutations.
03:36If they were, they could see something earlier on.
03:40If you find something an issue early on, the chances are it's better treatable in the future.
03:48I have reached out to the Harris campaign.
03:50In fact, they invited me to the DNC.
03:53I actually asked if I could speak.
03:55I've made it very clear to them at high levels that the disability advocacy is super important
04:03to me, and I'm not letting it go.
04:06If Donald and I have one thing in common, we're relentless.
04:09I will be relentless at this.
04:10I am not going to stop.