WASHINGTON – In a surprising change of tune, President-elect Donald Trump informed Time in an interview printed Thursday that the transgender toilet debate isn’t that essential and doesn’t have an effect on many individuals anyway – regardless of his marketing campaign and different GOP teams pouring tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} into political adverts attacking transgender folks.
“I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue,” Trump mentioned within the interview, which passed off in late November. “Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about.”
He recommended the Supreme Court docket ought to finally resolve whether or not transgender folks can use bogs that align with their gender id, however reiterated that this debate — which was created solely by Republicans — is just not a precedence.
“We’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people,” Trump mentioned.
Roughly 1.6 million folks ages 13 and older establish as transgender in america, in accordance with The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ analysis heart.
Trump’s newest feedback are in sharp distinction to the best way that he and his get together relentlessly attacked transgender folks on the marketing campaign path, stoking fears about trans folks in sports activities, in bogs and in pursuit of gender-affirming care.
As of mid-October, Trump and Republicans had spent greater than $65 million on anti-trans tv adverts in states with aggressive races, per an evaluation of AdImpact knowledge from The New York Instances. By the top of the marketing campaign season, the GOP had spent practically $215 million on tv adverts fanning concern and hatred of trans folks, in accordance with AdImpact knowledge cited by a Washington Publish reporter. That determine doesn’t embody cable or streaming adverts, both.
One among Trump’s most memorable marketing campaign adverts attacked Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for supporting trans rights. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” mentioned the 30-second advert.
The advert was particularly attacking Harris for saying in 2019 that she supported gender-affirming look after folks in federal prisons and immigrant detention. This was not a problem that Harris was campaigning on in 2024, however it was a regulation that Trump adopted as president in his first time period.
Solely two federal prisoners have ever undergone these procedures, and PolitiFact might discover no report of any immigration detainees receiving gender-affirming surgical procedures.
Trump reportedly aired this advert greater than 30,000 instances in each swing state and spent more cash on it than on all the opposite adverts in his marketing campaign mixed.
In his Time interview, Trump was additionally requested about Republican assaults on transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.). McBride isn’t even in Congress but and has already turn out to be the goal of transphobic assaults by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who launched a invoice geared toward barring McBride from utilizing ladies’s bogs within the Home.
McBride has responded to Mace’s assaults by saying there are extra essential points to deal with in Congress than bogs. When Trump was requested if he agrees with incoming Home Democrat McBride, he emphatically mentioned sure.
“I do agree with that. On that—absolutely,” mentioned the president-elect. “As I was saying, it’s a small number of people.”
As for his “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you” advert attacking Harris’ assist for trans rights, Trump once more downplayed his months of assaults on transgender folks and mentioned he’s for everybody.
Democracy In The Stability
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“I mean, Trump is definitely for us, okay? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country,” mentioned the president-elect. “And also, I want to have all people treated fairly. You know, forget about majority or not majority. I want people to be treated well and fairly.”
