In a stunning change of tune, President-elect Donald Trump told Time magazine that the transgender bathroom debate isn’t that important and doesn’t affect many people anyway – despite his campaign and other Republican groups pouring tens of millions of dollars into political ads attacking transgender people.
“I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue,” Trump said in the interview, which took place in late November. “Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about.”
He suggested the Supreme Court should ultimately decide whether transgender people can use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, but reiterated that this debate — which was created entirely by Republicans — is not a priority.
“We’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people,” Trump said.
Roughly 1.6 million people ages 13 and older identify as transgender in the United States, according to The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research centre.
Trump’s latest comments are in sharp contrast to the way that he and his party relentlessly attacked transgender people on the campaign trail, stoking fears about trans people in sports, in bathrooms and in pursuit of gender-affirming care.
As of mid-October, Trump and Republicans had spent more than $65 million on anti-trans television ads in states with competitive races, per an analysis of AdImpact data from The New York Times. By the end of the campaign season, the Republicans had spent nearly $215 million on television ads fanning fear and hatred of trans people, according to AdImpact data cited by a Washington Post reporter. That figure doesn’t include cable or streaming ads, either.
One of Trump’s most memorable campaign ads attacked Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris for supporting trans rights. “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you,” said the 30-second ad.
The ad was specifically attacking Harris for saying in 2019 that she supported gender-affirming care for people in federal prisons and immigrant detention. This was not an issue that Harris was campaigning on in 2024, but it was a law that Trump followed as president in his first term.
Only two federal prisoners have ever undergone these procedures, and PolitiFact could find no record of any immigration detainees receiving gender-affirming surgeries.
Trump reportedly aired this ad more than 30,000 times in every swing state and spent more money on it than on all the other ads in his campaigncombined.
In his Time interview, Trump was also asked about Republican attacks on transgender Representative-elect Sarah McBride. McBride isn’t even in Congress yet and has already become the target of transphobic attacks by Representative Nancy Mace, who introduced a bill aimed at barring McBride from using women’s bathrooms in the House.
McBride has responded to Mace’s attacks by saying there are more important issues to focus on in Congress than bathrooms. When Trump was asked if he agrees with incoming House Democrat McBride, he emphatically said yes.
“I do agree with that. On that—absolutely,” said the president-elect. “As I was saying, it’s a small number of people.”
As for his “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you” ad attacking Harris’ support for trans rights, Trump again downplayed his months of attacks on transgender people and said he is for everyone.
“I mean, Trump is definitely for us, okay? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country,” said the president-elect. “And also, I want to have all people treated fairly. You know, forget about majority or not majority. I want people to be treated well and fairly.”
