After making anti-trans attacks the center of his campaign, Donald Trump now claims he’s not preoccupied with stripping trans people’s rights since they make up such a small percentage of the population.

Trump was recently named Time’s 2024 Person of the Year, and in his extensive interview with the publication said he agreed with transgender Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) that lawmakers should focus on more pressing issues than where she will use the bathroom.

Related

Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee thinks LGBTQ+ soldiers harm the military
Pete Hegseth thinks the estimated 126,827 LGBTQ+ military service members “erode standards” of the US military.

“I do agree with that. On that—absolutely,” he said. “As I was saying, it’s a small number of people.”

Insights for the LGBTQ+ community

Subscribe to our briefing for insights into how politics impacts the LGBTQ+ community and more.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

The interviewer brought up Trump’s assertion in 2016 that trans people could use any bathroom they wanted. Trump replied that he did not “want to get into the bathroom issue” since “it’s a very small number of people… and it’s ripped apart our country.”

“They’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees,” he continued. “I am a big believer in the Supreme Court, and I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but 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.”

The comments run directly counter to the vicious anti-trans campaign Trump ran, spreading outrageous lies that schools are forcibly transitioning kids without parental consent and spending millions of dollars on anti-trans ads that many believe helped swing the election in his favor.

The Time staff called him out on the contradiction, pointing out that one of the ads he put the most money behind declared “Trump is for us and Harris is for they/them.”

“Well it’s true,” Trump replied. “Trump is for us.”

“I mean, Trump is definitely for us, okay? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country. 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.”

After saying he wants everyone to be treated fairly, he proceeded to confirm the possibility that his administration will reverse President Joe Biden’s anti-discrimination protections for trans kids under Title IX.

“I’m going to look at it very closely,” he said. “We’re looking at it right now. We’re gonna look at it. We’re gonna look at everything. Look, the country is torn apart. We’re gonna look at everything.”

Trump has already announced a bevy of anti-LGBTQ+ nominees for Cabinet positions, and he reportedly plans to reinstitute his trans military ban immediately upon taking office. Project 2025, widely considered to be the blueprint for his second term, essentially calls for a complete elimination of LGBTQ+ rights.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.