Trump and Vance make anti-transgender attacks central to their campaign’s closing argument
Donald Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his closing argument before Election Day.
ATLANTA — Donald Trump has made his opposition to transgender rights central to his closing argument before Election Day, using demeaning language and misrepresentations to paint an exceedingly narrow slice of the U.S. population as a threat to national identity.
The former president and Republican nominee’s campaign and aligned political action committees have spent tens of millions of dollars on advertising that attacks Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris for her previous statements supporting transgender rights.
His rally speeches now feature a spoof video mocking trans people and their place in the U.S. military. The montage, interspersed with clips of the Vietnam War movie “Full Metal Jacket,” typically draws loud boos at his rallies, as do Trump’s false claims about female athletes and his mocking impression of what he says is a trans woman lifting weights.
“We will get ... transgender insanity the hell out of our schools, and we will keep men out of women’s sports,” Trump said at his recent Madison Square Garden rally, drawing an approving roar from the crowd of 20,000-plus.
His running mate, JD Vance, alleged Thursday that white teenagers in the “middle class or upper middle class” can identify as transgender to more easily get into elite universities. In doing so, Vance was citing conservative anger about affirmative action and other programs geared toward historically disenfranchised groups.
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