Misinformation is a major tactic of the Trump administration, and while it has to be tackled with a multipronged approach, one small action in the larger fight is as simple as just constantly refuting the lies and highlighting how ridiculous they are. 

We saw a great example of this in Trump’s interview last week with ABC News’ Terry Moran. As Donald Trump argued that the lack of due process for Kilmar Ábrego García and other immigrants was somehow acceptable, he brought up his administration’s lie that García has “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles.

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Moran first characterized the tattoos as being “interpreted that way” as a way to highlight that it wasn’t necessarily true. When Trump interrupts him, Moran says that he didn’t have those characters tattooed, and Trump states that he did. Moran states that it was photoshopped in a picture that Trump shared, and Trump tries to diminish him by suggesting he is doing Moran a favor by sitting for the interview. Moran continues to point out that Garcia didn’t have the characters tattooed, and Trump ends up pathetically asking him to “just say yes.”

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That interview can act as a roadmap to challenge another thing that happened last week: the Trump administration put out a report on healthcare for trans youth that warned against gender-affirming care and pushed for using conversion therapy instead. 

The Health and Human Services (HHS) review will cause real harm to trans people across the United States. Medical consensus supports gender-affirming care for trans youth, based on a wealth of research, despite the fact that the report claims that this is “unproven.” 

Meanwhile, conversion therapy has been shown to be so thoroughly detrimental to the well-being of LGBTQ+ people that over half of the states have a full or partial ban on the practice. 

While the report presents a very real danger, it is only one part of Trump’s larger scheme, and the same tactic that Moran employed is ideal to combat it.

The HHS report is upsetting, but not particularly surprising. It was thrown together in just 90 days after Trump issued executive orders targeting the trans community and looking to define us out of legal existence. After pressuring healthcare providers across the country to stop providing gender-affirming healthcare and pulling federal funding from any research project that has the smallest possibility of being related to trans people, this report was the natural next step in Trump’s agenda. 

Without any legitimate care or research taking place for trans people, the Trump administration is hoping that their misinformation can masquerade as replacement science.

To be clear, the HHS report has no grounding in the real world or true scientific processes. As Erin Reed points out in her fact-check of the report, there are no authors listed and no suggestion that any form of peer review took place. Rather, the review was put together by anti-trans activists and political consultants.

Trying to fact-check a document that is so blatantly just pushing an agenda without a consideration of reality can feel futile. The report declares that trans people are not happy after transitioning, primarily using metrics based in capitalism and traditional relationship models: that is, whether trans people are employed and have romantic partners. 

Not only are these strange metrics to use instead of consulting any of the many recent studies into trans happiness, but the report also refers to a single study from 1988 to draw its conclusions on whether gender-affirming care is the right choice for trans people. This report exists only as a political chess piece, nothing more.

We’ve seen that Trump is following the Nazi playbook and moving towards a trans genocide, and we’re seeing one more logical step on that horrific road. This report is all about discrediting a marginalized group and eroding support for them. By claiming that trans identities are an illness that needs to be treated, the Trump administration can move towards a goal of eradication under a false banner of humanitarian concern. 

It’s one more attempt at screaming “think of the children” as a way to make people think trans people are the problem. Trump has weakened the scope for a scientific defense of trans people, and now he’s hoping people will swallow his pseudoscience explanation of why we have to go.

While Trump’s cronies and the blind supporters of his cult will regurgitate the anti-trans lies and use them to support their own hateful agendas, Moran’s tactics might be more successful against it than traditional debate. The best tool to fight misinformation is the truth, but that can often require the other side to be acting in good faith. We’ve seen through the COVID pandemic that the vilifying of experts has been used to dismiss the truth, and long explanations of the facts can easily be ignored in favor of a loud and flashy lie. But refuting Trump’s misinformation can still work, whether in everyday conversations and social media interactions or in national media events.

While groups work to keep trans research and support alive across the United States and internationally, we have to keep pushing back against the big lie. This is something that we can all work on as part of our own acts of resistance. Hold to the truth, remind others of what is real, and leave the hateful just begging you to agree with their lies.

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