The images accompanying these two statements are of Trump yet again appearing to have difficulty drinking followed by the oft-repeated image of Trump at a campaign rally in 2016 mocking the disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski. Nor the character to admit it,” the ad tells us, directly linking physical ability with moral character. “Trump doesn’t have the strength to lead. The Lincoln Project’s #TrumpIsNotWell ad is a classic of the genre. Put all together, we viewers participate in the practice of “diagnosing by gif,” in which a short video played on loop allegedly reveals a person’s secret illness and related moral failing. Visual tactics like freezing and looping, cutting and splicing, slowing down and speeding up, all of which amount to forms of manipulation-or “doctoring”-of evidence to help us see something that we are led to believe might otherwise remain out of sight. Graham’s article in the Atlantic which offers a more extended case as to why the “ search for some disqualifying physical ailment is a distraction.” Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), who was disabled in combat and uses a wheelchair, also called out the ableism of the clips on Twitter, retweeting David A. Advocates like Rebecca Cokely, director of the Disability Justice Initiative at the Center for American Progress, rightly argued that the focus on Trump’s difficulty drinking water and walking down a ramp detracted from the real issues, including that his policies and positions have been harmful to disabled and chronically ill people. Many disabled writers and activists immediately objected to the ableist attitudes that the tactic of weaponizing perceived physical weakness reveals. The Lincoln Project aims to shamelessly hoist Trump on his petard. In 2016, Trump and his campaign used this tactic extensively against Hillary Clinton-recall #SickHillary-and we are already seeing similar tactics against Joe Biden. The irony, of course, is that weaponizing weakness, or a perception of weakness, has been one of Trump’s signature political strategies. He’s weak,” the voiceover intones, drawing on cultural associations between physical decline and moral decay. The video intends to be merciless: “He’s shaky. Just days after Trump’s speech, the Lincoln Project, a group whose mission is to “defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box,” released a 45-second mash-up video designed to weaponize weakness as a form of illness politics. The evidence can be watched on loop and shared easily via hashtag–a visual tactic I call “diagnosing by gif.” Rewind and retweet after me: #TrumpIsNotWell. In no time, then, the truth is out: Trump is not well. One clip of Trump drinking lasts approximately three seconds, while another of him walking down a ramp lasts 15 seconds. We’ve all seen the clips from President Trump’s commencement speech at the United States Military Academy on June 13.
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