On the eve of Thanksgiving, the US president addressed the public in a lengthy outburst of anger on his social media platform, claiming that immigration was destroying the country.
In a questionable example given by Donald Trump in his Truth Social post, he falsely warned that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia” would “completely take over” the state of Minnesota, with dangerous migrant gangs on the streets while citizens cowered fearfully in their homes.
Trump specifically blamed Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee. “Minnesota’s severely retarded Gov. Tim Walz is doing nothing, either out of fear, incompetence, or both,” Trump snapped.
Political escalation and brutalization of language
In the not-so-distant past, it would have been unthinkable for a president to attack his political opponent with a derogatory term for people with intellectual disabilities. Even a Republican, Indiana State Senator Mike Bohacek, rebuked Trump in a Facebook post for his choice of words, saying it was reason enough to oppose redrawing of electoral districts in the state favored by Republicans. “I have been an unapologetic advocate for people with intellectual disabilities since the birth of my second daughter, who has Down syndrome,” he wrote, noting that Trump’s “choice of words has consequences.” (Trump predictably doubled down on his stance a few days later.)
“The triumph of the R-word”
The insult to the president did not arise out of nowhere. Online, during the 2024 election and the first year of his second term, MAGA influencers increasingly used the R-word to insult and scandalize conscientious “woke” liberals — normalizing a slur that had largely disappeared from the national vocabulary. The trend reflects not only a brutalization of the culture of public discourse under Trump, but also new lows of callousness and cruelty in America, with disability activists warning of the term’s dehumanizing impact.
Elon Musk alone has used the word more than 30 times on his X account since the start of 2024, while Joe Rogan said his return represented an important victory for right-wing conservatives. “The word ‘retarded’ is back, and it’s one of the great cultural victories,” the podcaster boasted in an April episode of his show.
Luvell Anderson, head of the philosophy department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has written extensively about the lexical category of swear words. He describes the Trump camp’s push to reintroduce the R-word into public speech as part of a larger project of ideological assertion. “The attempt to reintroduce ‘retarded’ into public language has less to do with a shift in meaning than with an attempt to shift values,” he explains. “From the far right’s perspective, reintroducing a word we’ve been banned from is an act of rebellion to take back power. Open defiance is a clear sign that the old gatekeepers are no longer in charge.”
Origins of the term and early medical use
How exactly did we get here? To understand this, we must trace the history and development of this problematic term over centuries.
“Retard” is a verb derived from the Latin verb “retardare,” meaning “to slow down” or “to delay.” To hinder something or someone in its progress is to “retard” it. “Retarded” is the corresponding adjective and describes what has been slowed down, while “retardant” describes what is causing this inhibition. English and other languages have included versions of these words since the 15th century.
By the 19th century, clinical psychologists began using old words like “idiot” and “imbecile” to categorize people with mental disabilities – and sometimes inventing new ones. In 1910, the American eugenicist Henry H. Goddard coined the term “Moron” as a replacement for “feeble-minded”. In this era, such diagnoses usually meant social exclusion, often associated with institutionalization and sterilization.
From a technical term to a swear word
As these words began to be used as insults outside of clinical contexts, some in the medical community sought less loaded terms. The first known use of “retarded” to describe mentally retarded people dates to 1895, and “mental retardation” gradually replaced the older terminology in the medical literature of the 20th century. This was also reflected in the names of interest groups. Nevertheless, “retarded” remained scientifically accepted language until the 1980s and 1990s.
John McWhorter, associate professor of linguistics, says the R-word was intended in part as a neutralizing solution after older terms became offensive slang words. But as soon as “retarded” had the same negative effect as “moron,” people switched to new terms like “special needs.”
The problem: The replacement term enters a euphemism hamster wheel. “A word takes on unpleasant associations,” says McWhorter. The new term also carries a negative charge – as with the development from “crippled” to “handicapped” to “disabled”.
Activism and legal changes
The R-word quickly gained traction in the mid-20th century as a casual term of disparagement. In the 1970s, activists for people with disabilities fought against the term. Anderson explains that this process – called pejoration – is common. Terms like “idiot,” “feeble-minded,” and “Negro” also went through this development.
“The status and meaning of expressions depend on language ideologies,” he says. The fact that the R-word was used for people who were not disabled showed a lack of empathy for those who are.
In 2009, Special Olympics youth activists launched the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign, calling on students across the country to stop using the term in a derogatory manner. The campaign later became a broader movement for inclusion.
In 2010, President Obama signed Rosa’s Law, named after nine-year-old Rosa Marcellino, who fought to remove the term “mental retardation” from her state’s records. The law replaced this term nationwide with “intellectual disability”. Some states had already made the change.
But it turned out that some people didn’t want to give up the term. In 2012, commentator Ann Coulter called Obama a “retard,” sparking outrage — and yet refusing to apologize. She insisted that she was using the term as a synonym for “loser.”
The comeback in the culture war
Trump’s 2016 campaign produced moments of extreme incivility, including the infamous aping of journalist Serge Kovaleski. During his time in office, Trump frequently used expletives. But it wasn’t until 2024 — in an election in which he portrayed Biden as cognitively degrading — that the MAGA movement made a concerted effort to revive the R-word.
This was driven by Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now X, and the deregulation of the platform. He openly interacted with accounts like “Retard Finder,” which use the slur for political humiliation.
Researchers at Montclair State University documented an increase in R-word use of over 200 percent after Musk’s “F u retard” post – more than 300,000 posts in two days.
Social media dynamics and hate speech
The researchers emphasized that such events are not an “isolated blip” but rather signs of a worsening climate. At the same time, Meta dismantled moderation rules in advance of another Trump term.
New data showed: After Trump called Walz “retarded,” usage of the term on X increased 225.7 percent — 1.12 million posts in a week.
“Many people face similar stress factors,” says study author Benton. Using a hurtful term can give them a feeling of power: “You go from feeling vulnerable to being seen as dangerous.”
According to Benton, right-wing conservatives seek validation by making others angry. The popularity of the term also comes at a time when MAGA voices claim that empathy has damaged the country – and is ironically directed against a group that is particularly dependent on social security.
Peterka-Benton says, “Not using the R-word has become synonymous with ‘woke.’ Today’s use serves to try to regain control over what can be said publicly – and at the same time distract from larger problems: economic inequality, unresolved questions about Trump and Epstein and the demonization of migrants.
Social consequences and political context
Regardless of its ideological use, the R-word is also an outlet to cover up political disappointments: rising food prices, stalled investigations, the threat of war with Venezuela, the threat of loss of Medicaid benefits.
But online you can use the word “retarded” freely. One
And that already seems like a bad deal.