Donald Trump
By Akeem Atoyebi
President-elect Donald Trump gave an insight on what his relationship with LGBTQ community will be when on Sunday he pledged to “stop the transgender lunacy” on day one of his presidency, even as Republicans set to control both chambers of Congress and the Senate.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.
He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” adding that “it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Speaking to the AmericaFest conference in one of the battleground states he carried in the November election, Trump further promised tough measures against “migrant crime” and doubled down on his vows to restore US control of the Panama Canal.
Transgender issues have dominated US politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policies such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for the transgender children of service members.
In his speech Sunday, which amounted to something of a victory lap, Trump made expansive promises for his second term — and drew a dark picture of the four years preceding it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the latter of whom he defeated in the 2024 election.
