Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz taught high school. He’s the parent of a child with special needs. He’s heard the r-word before.

He’s heard it from playground bullies. He’s heard it from online trolls.

And now he’s heard it from the president of the United States.

Late Thursday night, President Donald Trump took to social media, posting a long message that started with Thanksgiving greetings and ended with an attack on the “seriously [r-word] Governor of Minnesota.”

“We know who that word hurts. We know why he was using it,” Walz said. “This is a bad human being.”

The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The president’s insult comes as Minnesota prepares to host the 2026 Special Olympic USA games in June.

The games will draw 4,000 athletes and 75,000 fans to lift up the people that the r-word would tear down.

“We worked for decades to get that slur out of our schools, to make sure kids feel welcome,” Walz said in an interview on Friday. “Special Olympics has had a crusade on this for decades.”

Trump’s words and deeds — the time he mocked a reporter with a physical disability; the times in recent weeks that he called women “stupid,” “ugly” and “piggy” — tend to get shrugged off as Trump being Trump.

“This is not both-sidesism,” Walz said. “This is clearly one side — Donald Trump — that is clearly trying to divide this country and thinks that it’s beneficial to him, politically.”

There’s a pattern to Trump’s holiday greetings: Subject + verb + insult.

“A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration,” he wrote as the opening sentence of his Truth Social holiday post.

“This is the quintessential American holiday,” Walz said. “It’s the time to be grateful, celebrate, bring families together — and [Trump] used it as another opportunity to divide.”

There was nothing in the lengthy message, Walz noted, about Trump’s family, or the things he was grateful for in his life.

“Why isn’t he with his family? Why aren’t they celebrating? Why aren’t they playing Yahtzee?” Walz said. “That’s what we’re doing. I don’t get it.”

Trump’s tradition of wrapping holiday greetings around insults dates back at least to Memorial Day 2015: “I would like to wish everyone, including all haters and losers (of which, sadly, there are many) a truly happy and enjoyable Memorial Day!”

Mother’s Day? “Happy Mother’s Day to ALL, in particular the Mothers, Wives and Lovers of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, and Communists who are doing everything within their power to destroy and obliterate our once great Country.”

Christmas 2024: “GO TO HELL!”

And now the r-word, followed by series of vicious slurs against Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

Gus Walz heard the r-word a lot last year, after cameras captured him in tears of pride at the Democratic National Convention. The younger Walz — one of millions of Americans with a nonverbal learning disorder — responded to cruelty with grace.

“I just blocked it out,” he said in an interview with CBS. “There’s nothing wrong with showing emotions, and if people are going to say there’s something wrong with that, then those are not the people that I want to be associated with.”

Gus’s proud father wishes America would follow his lead.

“People who do things like this, you don’t associate with,” Walz said. “I really wish America would start to understand that this has nothing to do with conservative tax policy, it has nothing to do with climate change.

“It has everything to do with — at heart — just being cruel,” he added. “The cruelty is at the center of the agenda.” jennifer.brooks@startribune.com