Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he wanted a crying baby removed from a campaign event, the latest in a series of increasingly bizarre attacks against sympathetic targets. The outbursts have earned denouncements from top Republican officials but so far few disavowals of his candidacy. Slate received exclusive comment from the baby at the center of the latest controversy who has insisted that—although he denounces Trump’s anti-baby rhetoric in the harshest terms—he is standing by the Republican nominee’s candidacy. Here is his statement:
I have been a proud Republican for as long as I can remember. My Republican Party is the party of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan—all of whom started as babies.
In recent days, Donald Trump personally attacked me as a “crying baby” and asked that my mother and I be removed from a rally at which he was speaking. These comments were an affront to me, to babies, and to people who cry. While I condemn them in the strongest possible terms, I continue to support Mr. Trump’s candidacy for the presidency of the United States.
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Mr. Trump deserves the backing of all Republicans as he attempts to defeat Hillary Clinton. It was the thought of her total negligence surrounding the important issue of national security as evidenced by her shady email practices and the harm I expect will come from radically liberal Supreme Court appointments that led me to cry in the first place—and that will lead millions of baby and adult Americans to cry if she is ever allowed to occupy the White House.
As I have made clear since the beginning of this election cycle, I am helpless and scared and do not understand the events taking place around me. These are the values on which America is built. I believe that Mr. Trump ultimately shares these values, which is why I will be supporting him in the fall.
When asked by reporters how he felt about Trump’s recent criticism of parents of a fallen service member, the baby soiled himself and smiled.
