Lucy Lang
April 5, 2026
Public service teaches you something quickly: talent rarely looks the way people expect it to.
That’s why Donald Trump’s recent claim – that someone with dyslexia could never serve as president – is not just wrong, but dangerous. And profoundly misunderstands both dyslexia and leadership.
I am the parent of a brilliant dyslexic child and the Inspector General of the State of New York, two experiences which have taught me that neurodiversity, including learning differences like dyslexia, is not a liability in government, but an asset.
Dyslexia is one of the most common learning differences, affecting an estimated 10 to 20 percent of people worldwide, or tens of millions of Americans – fellow citizens serving in classrooms, companies, courtrooms, laboratories, and government offices. It shapes how individuals process written language, not their intelligence, judgment, or character. While many people with dyslexia read more slowly or struggle with spelling, especially before receiving instruction through evidence-based reading methods, these challenges often coexist with strengths that matter enormously in leadership: pattern recognition, creativity, problem-solving, and the ability to synthesize complex information.
These strengths are not theoretical. Across public life, many accomplished leaders – from former New York Governor and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller to Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg – have spoken openly about their dyslexia.
Their success does not mean the path is easy. Many children with dyslexia experience frustration in school, particularly when instruction fails to meet their needs. For decades, educators and advocates have worked to replace stigma with evidence-based teaching and early intervention, and that work is still not finished.
But the lesson of dyslexia is not limitation; it is adaptation. People who learn differently often develop powerful compensatory skills: listening closely, retaining information, communicating ideas clearly, and approaching problems from angles others may miss.
In government those are assets. Which makes it all the more galling that Donald Trump has contributed to the inaccurate and ignorant myths about dyslexic learners with his recent assertion that “a president should not have learning disabilities, OK?”
At the Offices of the Inspector General, like many institutions charged with protecting the public trust, our work depends on investigators, lawyers, analysts, and auditors who think critically and approach problems from multiple perspectives. Effective oversight is not about speed-reading memos – it is about spotting inconsistencies across complex records, questioning assumptions others accept, and understanding systems enough to expose where they fail.
More broadly, American democracy has never depended on a single type of mind. It works because people bring different experiences, different talents, and different ways of thinking to the table.
To suggest that dyslexia is disqualifying for leadership would exclude millions of Americans from public service and ignore a long history demonstrating that intellectual diversity strengthens institutions.
Voters should evaluate candidates the way democracy demands: by their judgment, integrity, ideas, and record. Those are legitimate debates. But dismissing someone’s capacity to lead because they process written words differently confuses a learning difference with a measure of ability.
In public service, we should know better – and expect better.
Especially during Neurodiversity Acceptance Month, may learners and leaders of all kinds reject the cruelty of the President’s schoolyard bullying and instead embrace the real lesson taught by so many dyslexic learners, from my daughter to Governor Rockefeller: the capacity to lead does not belong to a single kind of thinker. A democracy that recognizes this truth will always be stronger for it.
Lucy Lang is the New York State Inspector General.
