President Trump has repeatedly made claims that California Governor Gavin Newsom is incapable of being president because of his dyslexia, calling him “dumb” and lacking “mental ability.”
“[Newsom] has learning disabilities,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, March 16. “Honestly, I’m all for people with learning disabilities, but not for my president. I think the president should not have learning disabilities, okay, and I know it’s highly controversial to say such a horrible thing.”
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that the California Governor has been open about in the past, and even taken pride in.
“To every kid with a learning disability: don’t let anyone — not even the President of the United States — bully you,” he wrote on X. “Dyslexia isn’t a weakness. It’s your strength.”
After the president’s words made headlines in mid-March, communications consultant and author Michael Brodkorb pointed out that history contradicts Trump’s claims.
“Woodrow Wilson could barely read by age ten,” wrote Brodkorb, who has dyslexia himself. “As the 28th president of the United States, he led the country through World War I and won the Nobel Peace Prize.”
For decades, historians have widely agreed that Wilson had all the signs of dyslexia, on top of his early struggles with literacy.
William H. Calvin — a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle — once detailed his upbringing in his essay, “The Woodrow Wilson Story.”
“Wilson had dyslexia in childhood,” Calvin wrote back in 1983. “Imagine not learning your letters until age 9, not reading until age 12, being a slow reader all your life.”
“Rather than being a prescription for a life as a nonintellectual ditchdigger,” he continued, “this was part of the background of a man who became a professor at Princeton University and the author of a popularly acclaimed book on George Washington.”
In addition to dyslexia, Wilson battled neurological conditions throughout his life. At 39, he suffered his first minor stroke, one that “left him with weakness of the right arm and hand, sensory disturbances in the tips of several fingers.”
He would go on to suffer mild strokes and cerebral vascular disease throughout his career, but remained undeterred and ran a successful campaign for the presidency. On March 4, 1913, at the age of 56, Wilson was inaugurated. He would go on to serve two terms as president, presiding over the country during World War I.
According to Calvin, Wilson was “an inspiration to the 2.5 million stroke victims in the U.S. who must cope with their assorted disabilities.”
However, Wilson should not be sanctified as a historical figure. In 1913, Wilson’s administration re-segregated federal government offices, reversing progress made after the Civil War. Black employees were demoted or pushed out, and segregated workspaces were introduced.
On February 18, 1915, Wilson screened the film “The Birth of a Nation” at the White House — the first movie ever shown there. The film glorified the Ku Klux Klan and promoted racist stereotypes, and while there’s debate over how strongly he endorsed it, the association has caused lasting criticism.
But when it comes to Wilson’s flaws worth rebuke or derision, his dyslexia is not one of them.
“The National Center for Learning Disabilities put it plainly: Dyslexia affects how the brain processes information,” Brodkorb wrote in his Substack. “It has no connection to intelligence, judgment, or the ability to lead.”
“The list of people who share your experience and went on to do extraordinary things is long. It includes some of the most consequential leaders this country has ever produced. Dyslexia is not a ceiling. It never was.”
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Header image via the Wellcome Collection (CC BY 4.0)
