His Campaign Struggling, Trump Launches National Attack on Transgender Kids
Former president jumps on right-wing transphobic cause
Although he's launched his comeback bid to return to the White House, Donald Trump's campaign has been decidedly lackluster this far.
It's with that backdrop that the former president announced a new — and insidious — strategy.
Trump embraced the ongoing right-wing onslaught against transgender youth with his own “plan” to attack them.
The far-right Republican under multiple criminal and civil investigations, Trump's had a more difficult time raising campaign cash this time, and he's struggling for frontrunner status against another hard-right figure, Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
The $9.5 million Trump's raised since his announcement of a 2024 campaign is smaller than the nearly $11.8 million raised by Trump entities in the six weeks before his November 15 campaign announcement, underscoring the challenges Trump faces as he attempts a political comeback.
Meanwhile, he's also been grappling with DeSantis in public opinion polling for support among Republican primary voters.
In an attempt to build support among those voters, Trump took aim at what he called “left-wing gender insanity,” and the “chemical, physical and emotional mutilation” of young people.
The effect of Trump's transphobic intention would be to nationalize the marginalization of transgender youth already going on in so-called “red states” across the country.
States dominated by Republicans have been passing a growing raft of laws putting trans youth in the cross hairs, cutting off their access to play sports, use bathrooms which match their gender identity and even criminalize their ability to receive gender-affirming care.
Utah’s Republican governor on Saturday signed a bill that bans young people who are transgender from receiving gender-affirming healthcare as other states consider similar legislation.
The governor, Spencer Cox, who had not taken a public position on the transgender care measure, signed it a day after the state legislature sent it to his desk. Utah’s measure prohibits transgender surgery for young people and disallows hormone treatments for minors who have not yet been diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
Trump would take those plans and bring them to the national stage.
“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse, very simple. Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth,” he said in a campaign video released Tuesday. “On day one, I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care. Ridiculous, a process that includes giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children.
“Can you believe this? I will sign a new executive order instructing every federal agency to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. I will then ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states. It’ll go very quickly,” he added.
The truth is that gender-affirming care for transgender youth has long been embraced by the medical community as the best approach for their emotional and physical well-being.
Such prominent organizations as the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry all back the availability of the same gender-affirming care which Trump and his Republican allies all seek to block.
Well-known TV personality and advocate Jon Stewart recently demolished right-wing Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge over her opposition to gender-affirming care, on-camera for his series on the Apple+ streaming service.
Watch here:
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