WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lamented the growing acceptance of transgender Americans Friday in an appearance at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms.
Trump said transgender women should not be allowed to play in women’s sports and said access to gender-affirming health care should be restricted. He also lashed out at critics who have accused him of using Arlington National Cemetery for a campaign photo op.
But he largely stuck to his favorite topics during an hourlong “fireside chat” in Washington, where he lashed out at President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, deplored illegal immigration and reminisced about his parents’ marriage, his path to being the reality television star of “The Apprentice” and the debate that ended Biden’s reelection campaign.
“Our country is being poisoned. And your schools and your children are suffering greatly because they’re going into the classrooms and taking disease, and they don’t even speak English,” Trump said of immigrants crossing the border illegally. “It’s crazy.”
Trump said school boards have become “like dictatorships” hostile to the desires of parents, echoing conservative frustration that bubbled over in public meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m for parental rights all the way. I don’t even understand the concept of not being,” Trump said.
Trump did not address the U.S. Army’s allegation that an Arlington National Cemetery official was “ abruptly pushed aside ” in an altercation with Trump aides this week while he visited the graves of servicemembers killed in a terrorist attack during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. But he said he’s gotten to know the families and they asked to take a photo with him.
Photos of the cemetery visit showed Trump standing by the graves and flashing a thumbs-up sign next to relatives of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover and Sgt. Nicole Gee.
“These people are devastated,” Trump said Friday. “These people can never ever be the same. And it was all because of Biden.”
Trump entered a hotel ballroom in Washington as he does at his signature rallies, standing and soaking up applause for the entirety of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” followed by chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.” Seated onstage with the co-founder of Moms for Liberty, Tiffany Justice, he shared some of his favorite stories that are mainstays at his rallies, bouncing from topic to topic in a style that has become familiar to his supporters.
The former president sought to shore up support and enthusiasm among a major part of his base. The bulk of Moms for Liberty’s 130,000-plus members are conservatives who agree with him that parents should have more say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations don’t belong in schools.
Yet Trump also runs the risk of alienating some moderate voters, many of whom see Moms for Liberty’s activism as too extreme to be legitimized by a presidential nominee.
A year ago, Moms for Liberty was viewed by many as a rising power player in conservative politics that could be pivotal in supporting the Republican ticket. The group’s membership skyrocketed after its launch in 2021, fueled by parents protesting mandatory masking for students and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
