Donald Trump noted how a crowd of his supporters raved more about restricting transgender “crazy” than cutting taxes, even though it wasn’t an issue a few years ago.
The former president appeared at the North Carolina Republican Party convention in Greensboro on Saturday to deliver a speech after being indicted on 37 federal counts in connection with the investigation of classified documents.
In addition to attacking the case as a “witch hunt” against him, Trump also said that if he won the 2024 election, he would sign an executive order as president to defund schools that teach critical race theory and ” transgender”. madness” and other “inappropriate racial, political and sexual content” for children.
The comments drew a standing ovation and cheers from the crowd, briefly interrupting Trump’s speech.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
“It’s amazing how strongly people feel about it. You see, I’m talking about cutting taxes, people get like that,” Trump said as he gave a silent applause.
“I’m talking about transgender, everyone goes crazy. Who would have thought? Five years ago, you didn’t know what the hell it was.”
a clip of the comments were shared on Twitter by journalist Aaron Rupar.
In response, several social media users have suggested that the former president is openly admitting to how they fabricated the culture wars being waged by other Republican figures, most notably his main rival in the primary, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, or how surprised he is. that the rights of transgender people have become. such a hot topic for some conservatives in recent years.
“Among the Republican candidates, only Trump has license to chronicle the inconsistencies of his political movement,” political scientist Don Moynihan tweeted.
Author Daniel Loxton wrote: “This is truly one of the most remarkable quotes I’ve heard in a long time. It turns out that you can invent a whole new front in the ‘culture war’ as needed, and even Trump is surprised at how many people He’ll just pick up your made-up banner and run with it.”
Paul Waldman, an opinion writer at the washington postHe added: “TRUMP: Boy what a pushover bunch of yokels you are, it’s unbelievable, even after all this time I still can’t believe how stupid you guys are. AUDIENCE: Woo hoo! You tell ’em Trump! Yeah!”
Trump notes that his crowd is more enthusiastic about bigotry than about tax cuts: “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about it. I talk about cutting taxes, people get like that, I talk about all transgender people getting go crazy. Five years ago you didn’t.” I don’t know what the hell it was” pic.twitter.com/n1xoeCIL5C
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 11, 2023
Trump has previously criticized transgender people during his time in the White House, with his administration banning transgender people from serving in the military in 2017 and declaring that trans women should not participate in women’s sports.
The former president began leaning more toward issues like gender-affirming healthcare for transgender minors in his 2024 campaign, including an announcement in February that he would punish doctors who provide gender-affirming healthcare.
“No serious country should tell its children they were born the wrong gender,” Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social. Trump also suggested that the concept of transsexuality had been “invented” by the radical left “just a few years ago.”