Trump laments acceptance of transgender people during Moms for Liberty event

Donald Trump sits in a chair holding a microphone, a woman is seated in another chair. A banner says "Moms for Liberty"

By Ali Swenson, Moriah Balingit and Will Weissert

Aug. 31, 2024 9:01 AM PT

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump lamented the growing acceptance of transgender Americans during an appearance at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national group that has spearheaded efforts to bar discussion of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism in K-12 classrooms.

Trump said transgender women should not be allowed to play in women’s sports and said access to gender-affirming healthcare should be restricted. He also lashed out at critics who denounced his Monday appearance at Arlington National Cemetery, where he filmed a campaign video and a member of his staff reportedly pushed a federal cemetery worker.

He largely stuck to his favorite topics during an hourlong appearance Friday in Washington, where he lashed out at President 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 claimed of immigrants crossing the border illegally. “It’s crazy.”

Trump said school boards have become “like dictatorships” hostile to the desires of parents, as he sought to shore up enthusiasm among a major part of his base.

The Moms for Liberty group has helped push a surge in book bannings and opposed mask mandates amid the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet Trump also runs the risk of alienating 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 right-wing 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 pandemic lockdown.

But in the last several months, a series of embarrassing scandals and underwhelming performances during local elections have called Moms for Liberty’s influence into question.

The group has voiced support for Project 2025, a detailed outline for a second Trump presidency. Trump has tried to distance himself from the controversial document, though it was written by many of his allies and former aides. Moms for Liberty serves on the advisory board for Project 2025, and the author of the document’s education chapter taught a “strategy session” at the group’s Friday gathering.

The negative perceptions about Moms for Liberty around the country could increase the potential liability for Trump, said Aubrey Jewett, a professor of political science at the University of Central Florida.

“It certainly helps him rally his base,” Jewett said. “But will that be enough to outdo the backlash?”

n an interview before the event, Justice disputed the idea that her group’s influence is waning, noting that 60% of Moms for Liberty-backed candidates won their recent races in the Florida primaries.

That’s “a really big deal,” she said, especially considering that many of the school board hopefuls the group endorses are first-time candidates running against incumbents. She also noted three Moms for Liberty members who won Florida House primaries, showing the group’s reach into other political offices.

Trump spent several minutes of the chat with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice discussing transgender issues in adult sports, including the recent Olympics, where vitriol erupted over a female boxer who was widely misidentified as transgender.

Trump falsely claimed Algerian boxer Imane Khelif “transitioned” and said he wouldn’t want to fight the woman. Khelif was born female.

Trump’s education proposals include promoting “school choice” — tax subsidies for private schooling. He also says he supports giving parents more say in education and awarding funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure, financially reward good teachers and allow parents to directly elect school principals.

He also has called for terminating the Department of Education — as does Project 2025 — as well as barring transgender athletes from playing girls’ sports and cutting funding from schools with vaccination mandates or with “inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.” He offered no new education proposals Friday.

Harris has criticized Trump for his threats to dismantle the Department of Education. She also has spoken out against efforts to restrict classroom content related to race.

Democrats have lauded her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for an executive order he signed protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ people to receive gender-affirming healthcare in his state. Republicans, including Trump, have lambasted him for it.

During a campaign stop earlier Friday in Johnstown, Pa., Trump criticized the media for what he called unfavorable coverage and singled out CNN.

Moments later, a man rushed the media area and made it over a bike rack barrier and close to a riser where television reporters were watching the rally. Private security pushed him back, and the man was eventually subdued by law enforcement using a Taser.

Trump at first said of the man, “He’s on our side,” but it’s not clear what his intent was. As police led the man away, the former president declared, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”

Swenson, Balingit and Weissert write for the Associated Press. AP writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.