Donald Trump claims Republican voters care more about trans issues than cutting taxes

Indicted former US president Donald Trump has claimed his Republican supporters care more about restricting trans rights than cutting taxes during a speech to the North Carolina Republican Party.

During the speech, made at a rally in Greensboro on Saturday (10 June), Trump said it was “amazing how strongly people feel” about things like “transgender insanity”, critical race theory and teaching “racial, sexual or political content” to children.

He is currently campaigning to become the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election race.

Trump’s comments were met with a standing ovation from the crowd and rapturous applause, as seen in video of the speech shared online by journalist Aaron Rupar.

The anti-trans speech was made two days after he was indicted for his handling of classified documents.

After the rapturous reaction from his audience, Donald Trump said he did not get such a response when talking about “cutting taxes”.

Trump notes his crowd is more enthused about bigotry than they are for tax cuts: "It's amazing how strongly people feel about that. I talk about cutting taxes, people go like that, I talk about transgender everybody goes crazy. Five years ago you didn't know what the hell it was" pic.twitter.com/n1xoeCIL5C

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 11, 2023

“I talk about transgender, everyone goes crazy. Who would have thought? Five years ago, you didn’t know what the hell it was.”

He also discussed abortion rights in the US, claiming responsibility for “killing Roe v Wade”, and saying US conservatives had shown that pro-choice supporters “were the radicals, not the pro-lifers”.

His rant continued, spouting misinformation about abortion, claiming pro-choice supporters “were willing to a kill a child … even after the child is born”.

He added that “radical left lunatics” were trying to interfere with elections “by using law enforcement”, which was “totally corrupt.”

During the speech Trump also targeted Ron DeSantis, who is considered his closest rival for the Republican nomination at the 2024 US presidential election.

He said DeSantis was “heading south quickly” and had “no personality”.

Politicising trans rights for elections

Donald Trump is by no means the first politician to target trans rights for his own political purposes.

Anti-LGBTQ+ legislation central is to DeSantis’ political legacy. He enacted the first Don’t Say Gay law in the US and continues to work against trans rights in his position as Florida governor.

Other Republican candidates running for the party’s nomination are also targeting trans rights as a major campaign issue.

Nikki Haley, who is also contesting the Republican candidacy, recently gave a campaign speech in which she described trans women in sports “the women’s issue of our time” and attacked TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.

Similar conversations are happening in the United Kingdom too, as parties anticipate the next general election.

In February, Conservative Party chair Lee Anderson said a “mix of culture wars and trans debate” should be at heart of the next election campaign for the Conservatives.