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Since Donald Trump marched back into the White House in January 2025, his administration has waged an all-out war on disabled people. Trump has issued executive orders rolling back civil rights protections, slashed funding for vital services and support, and advocated for legislation that would ramp up institutionalization.

The administration’s actions reflect the cruel and dehumanizing language it uses to speak about disabled people, who comprise more than a quarter of the nation’s population: One February 2025 executive order characterized children being diagnosed with autism or ADD/ADHD as “a dire threat to the American people and our way of life,” while, according to a memoir by Trump’s nephew, the president thinks some disabled people “should just die.”

Trump’s second-term assault on the disability community comes as many continue to shoulder the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately killed disabled and aging Americans, worsened the nation’s care worker shortage, and left at least 20 million people ill or disabled with long COVID. Rather than commit to plugging gaps in the nation’s public health system and preparing for future crises, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is implementing an extremist anti-science agenda that public health experts have warned “endanger[s] every American’s health.”

Truthout asked several disability justice advocates and organizers from across the U.S. to explain what’s at stake for disabled people in Trump’s attacks on voting rights, education, the climate and Indigenous land stewardship, health care, and trans rights. They also shared where they’re finding hope and how you can join the struggle for disability rights and justice as it continues into the second year of Trump 2.0.

The responses below have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Sarah Blahovec, disability civic engagement expert and author of The Accessible Voting Booth:

Attacks on voting rights are undeniably escalating under this administration. To counter the attacks, voter education is going to become more important than ever, particularly when it comes to state election law. We also need to mobilize to support those working outside of an electoral system and a government that is failing us — disabled people’s lives are on the line. We need to focus on supporting those who have never been properly supported (and have often been actively targeted by our government) who are facing extreme threats — including disabled immigrants, queer and trans people, incarcerated people, and people of........

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