Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro delivers his first budget address to a joint session of the state House and Senate on March 7, 2023 (Credit: Amanda Mustard for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star).
Answering questions following a visit to the Riverview Children’s Center in Verona, Gov. Josh Shapiro criticized President Donald Trump for his comments directed at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz where the president used a slur for people with intellectual disabilities to describe the governor.
Trump took his his preferred social media platform to attack Walz and Rep. Ilhan Omar, saying incorrectly that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both.”
He continued by calling out Omar, referring to her as the “worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how 'badly' she is treated.”
Shapiro took exception to the comments, invoking his visit to the Riverview facility and the lessons that Trump would learn if the chief executive would ever do the same.
“I was in one of the classrooms here, and I watched one of the teachers facilitating sharing between two of the children who were here,” he said. “You come to a place like Riverview to learn the lessons we need in life to have a society that is that is caring, compassionate. You learn how to share, you learn how to be kind, you learn how to interact with people that might look different than you or have different abilities than you, but you see them for the wonderful person they are. Not because of their differences.”
The governor said that the slur that the President used in his post would have repercussions in “every classroom in America” and said that anyone using that slur would get in trouble.
“The president has a unique ability to take us to the lowest common denominator all the time, and I must tell you, for him to attack people with disabilities by using that slur is highly offensive,” said Shapiro.
“To resort to the lowest common denominator, as the President did the other day, I think is shameful conduct. It’s conduct that would get him thrown out of every classroom in America. And he needs to be better. He needs to be best, as his wife likes to say. And I think for him, just to throw around insults like that, does a disservice to America. And I believe that the people of this great country are far better embodiments of the goodness of this nation than the President of the United States.”
The governor was in Allegheny County to tout his investments in childcare in the Commonwealth in the recently signed 2025-26 state budget. The budget established a $25 million Child Care Staff Recruitment and Retention Program, which will provide roughly $450 annually per employee to licensed Child Care Works (CCW) providers. These bonuses will support approximately 55,000 child care workers statewide and help stabilize the child care sector.
