WASHINGTON – In a shocking change of tune, President-elect Donald Trump advised Time in an interview revealed Thursday that the transgender lavatory 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 tens of millions of {dollars} into political advertisements attacking transgender folks.
“I don’t need to get into the toilet challenge,” Trump said in the interview, which befell in late November. “As a result of it’s a really small variety of folks we’re speaking about.”
He recommended the Supreme Court docket ought to in the end resolve whether or not transgender folks can use loos that align with their gender id, however reiterated that this debate — which was created totally by Republicans — shouldn’t be a precedence.
“We’re speaking a few very small variety of folks, and we’re speaking about it, and it will get huge protection, and it’s not lots of people,” Trump mentioned.
Roughly 1.6 million folks ages 13 and older establish as transgender in america, according to The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ analysis middle.
Trump’s newest feedback are in sharp distinction to the way in which that he and his occasion relentlessly attacked transgender folks on the marketing campaign path, stoking fears about trans folks in sports activities, in loos and in pursuit of gender-affirming care.
As of mid-October, Trump and Republicans had spent greater than $65 million on anti-trans tv advertisements in states with aggressive races, per an evaluation of AdImpact information from The New York Times. By the tip of the marketing campaign season, the GOP had spent practically $215 million on tv advertisements fanning concern and hatred of trans folks, in response to AdImpact information cited by a Washington Post reporter. That determine doesn’t embody cable or streaming advertisements, both.
One in every of Trump’s most memorable marketing campaign advertisements attacked Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for supporting trans rights. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” mentioned the 30-second ad.
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 difficulty that Harris was campaigning on in 2024, but it surely was a legislation that Trump adopted as president in his first time period.
Solely two federal prisoners have ever undergone these procedures, and PolitiFact may discover no record of any immigration detainees receiving gender-affirming surgical procedures.
Trump reportedly aired this advert more than 30,000 times in each swing state and spent more money on it than on all the opposite advertisements 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 into the goal of transphobic assaults by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), who launched a invoice geared toward barring McBride from utilizing girls’s loos within the Home.
McBride has responded to Mace’s assaults by saying there are extra essential points to concentrate on in Congress than loos. When Trump was requested if he agrees with incoming Home Democrat McBride, he emphatically mentioned sure.
“I do agree with that. On that—completely,” mentioned the president-elect. “As I used to be saying, it’s a small variety of folks.”
As for his “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you” advert attacking Harris’ help for trans rights, Trump once more downplayed his months of assaults on transgender folks and mentioned he’s for everybody.
“I imply, Trump is certainly for us, okay? And us is the huge, overwhelming majority of individuals on this nation,” mentioned the president-elect. “And likewise, I need to have all folks handled pretty. You understand, neglect about majority or not majority. I would like folks to be handled effectively and pretty.”
