Donald Trump mocks trans athletes in first sinister speech since leaving the White House
Donald Trump hit out at trans athletes in his first speech since leaving the White House. (abin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty)
Donald Trump mocked trans athletes in a sinister first speech since leaving the White House in January.
The disgraced former president gave his first public address since leaving office at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday (28 February).
In a speech that dragged on for an hour and a half, Trump repeatedly hit out at Joe Biden, pushed the false idea that the election was stolen, and characterised immigrants as “predators”, “rapists” and “drug smugglers”.
Around 42 minutes into his speech, Donald Trump turned his attention to trans athletes, lambasting Joe Biden for advancing protections for LGBT+ people.
“Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women’s sports,” Trump said to cheers from a mostly maskless crowd.
Trump incorrectly claimed that “a lot of new records are being broken in women’s sports”. Directly addressing women in the audience, he added: “Hate to say that ladies, but you got a lot of new records that are being shattered.
“For years the weightlifting, every ounce is like a big deal for many years,” Trump said, imitating a person struggling to lift weights.
“All of a sudden somebody comes along and beats it by a hundred pounds. Nah. Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males,” he said, adopting wording commonly used by anti-trans pressure groups.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9ITyMTesmo
“It’s not good for women, it’s not good for women’s sports, which worked so long and so hard to get to where they are. The records that stood for years, even decades, are now being smashed with ease,” Trump lied.
The former president claimed that women’s sports will “die” if trans women are allowed to compete.
He went on to claim that cisgender women’s records will “easily be broken by somebody who was born a man”. Needless to say, Trump provided no evidence to back up his claims.
“I think it’s crazy, I think it’s just crazy what’s happening,” he said.
“I don’t even know, is that controversial?” he asked the audience, who responded with cheers.
“Somebody said, ‘Well that’s going to be very controversial.’ I said, ‘That’s OK, you haven’t heard anything yet.'”
Donald Trump branded a ‘transphobic liar’
Trump has been slammed by LGBT+ rights organisations for his harmful and baseless claims about trans athletes.
Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign, lambasted Trump’s comments as “offensive and dangerous” – but added that they were “unsurprising”.
“His historic anti-LGBTQ agenda is part of the reason he’s no longer president and we’ll never get tired of reminding him of that,” he said.
The HRC tweeted: “Trans men are men, trans women are women, and Trump is a transphobic liar.”
Trans men are men, trans women are women, and Trump is a transphobic liar.
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) February 28, 2021
Meanwhile, GLAAD tweeted: “He’s getting cheers from the CPAC crowd for attacking trans Americans. His administration deployed multiple departments to target trans people looking for a job, going to school, trying to see a doctor, or to access a safe shelter.”
He’s getting cheers from the CPAC crowd for attacking trans Americans. His administration deployed multiple departments to target trans people looking for a job, going to school, trying to see a doctor, or to access a safe shelter. https://t.co/4eFzkyOAOT— GLAAD (@glaad) February 28, 2021
This is not the first time Trump has used his platform to attack trans athletes. During his presidency, he backed legal attempts, led by anti-LGBT+ evangelical law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, to ban trans girls from playing school sports.
In March 2020, the Trump administration officially declared that it believes trans girls should be treated as “biological males” when playing sports at school.
Trump repeatedly targeted LGBT+ people throughout his four years in office, leading to celebrations from advocacy organisations when Joe Biden won the election in November.
The former president has now been relegated to pushing his hateful views at conservative conferences after he was permanently banned from Twitter – his favourite platform – in January after he incited a riot at the United States Capitol in Washington DC.
