Donald Trump falsely stated at a rally that schools are performing gender-affirming surgery on students without their parents’ knowledge at a rally this past weekend.

“Can you imagine, you’re a parent and your son leaves the house, and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,'” Trump said at a rally this past Saturday in Mosinee, Wisconsin. “And your son comes back with a brutal operation. Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?”

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Donald Trump lies to crowd: Tim Walz let the state “kidnap children to change their gender”
The law they’re referring to prevents courts from removing custody because a parent allowed their kid to get gender-affirming care.

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It’s a similar claim to one he made late last month at an appearance with the anti-LGBTQ+ extremist group Moms for Liberty: “Your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s gonna happen with your child.”

Gender-affirming surgery is almost never performed on minors, and it’s never performed on minors without their parents knowing. Moreover, schools don’t provide that kind of medical care to students for free and without their parents’ knowledge.

Trump’s campaign was unable to point to an instance where this actually happened when asked after he made the claim while speaking with Moms for Liberty, but apparently, the knowledge that this has never happened isn’t enough to stop Trump from making this inflammatory claim to an audience that lacks the understanding of trans people and gender-affirming care to know that it’s false.