‘Cat amongst the pigeons’ is the idiom that comes to mind this afternoon following Donald Trump’s comments regarding transgender surgery for children.
He was speaking to the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg, John Micklethwait.
PRESIDENT TRUMP: “This is the party, the Republican Party, of common sense… We need borders, we need fair elections, we don’t want men playing in women’s sports, we don’t want transgender operations without parental consent.” pic.twitter.com/LMLbX4KbD3
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 15, 2024
‘This is the Republican party of common sense,’ said the former President and current presidential nominee.
‘Forget about conservative or liberal, we’re – let’s say conservative – but we’re really a party of; we need borders, we need fair elections, we don’t want men playing in women’s sports, we don’t want transgender operations without parental consent… There’s so many things but 99.9 per cent is common sense. It really is common sense.’
Did you catch it?
‘We don’t want transgender operations without parental consent.’
Since making the relatively off-hand comment in the middle of a broader election pitch, Trump has been called on by his supporters to clarify the comments.
If the outrage is anything to go by, the average Republican pro-Trump supporter doesn’t want to see any transgender surgeries performed on minors. ‘Protecting children’ forms a large part of the social conservative uprising against what many see as the moral depravity of the Democrats.
Rejecting gender affirmation procedures in their entirety, but more specifically surgery on children, is accepted as a line in the sand. It is also an easier sell to the mainstream voter instead of absolutist pro-life talking points that do not trend well with young working women (a demographic Republicans need to start recruiting).
Billboard Chris, an avid campaigner against the abuse of children, wrote on X today:
‘What the heck is this? Excuse me? JD Vance, you need to have a talk with Donald Trump. Parents do not have the right to abuse their children, and childhood sex change surgeries are child abuse!’
He added: ‘It was reported this same language (without parental consent) was in Trump’s script a couple [of] months ago but he never got around to it. Parents deserve crystal clear confirmation from Trump that he is against sex-change surgeries for children, period.’
While Trump’s words are ‘weak’ in the view of many voters, JD Vance’s are not – and he is running right alongside Trump. It’s possible Trump will use Vance as Darwin used Huxley.
As much as conviction politicians and voters may dislike the approach, it is probably an effective way of cutting right through the middle of remaining fence-sitting Democrats. It is interesting to note that the crowd, who were active participants in the interview, missed the comment when it happened live. Despite the hostile nature of the discussion, the crowd was laughing at Trump’s jokes and borderline booing at some of the questions.
It wasn’t the only worthwhile soundbite. Trump received a cheer when he said:
‘What does the Wall Street Journal know? They’ve been wrong about everything. So have you, by the way… You’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.’
No love lost for the press… Trump also found the opportunity to label Gavin Newsom, ‘Newscum’. The first time he said it, Trump slipped it out real-quick. When Mr Micklethwait went to correct what he might have thought was a mispronunciation, Trump slowed it right down. ‘New-scum… I call him. New-s-c-u-m.’
This is legendary. Trump calls the Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait fake news right to his face at the Economic Club of Chicago event. pic.twitter.com/R93KBNoF6c
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 15, 2024
Fair play to Mr Micklethwait. At the beginning he made it clear they had invited Vice President Kamala Harris to appear in a similar debate, but she had declined. He didn’t haven to make that damaging admission of the Democrat campaign – but he did.
Perhaps she is laying low following a few awkward teleprompter problems?
Others who are less kind, wonder if it might be her weak grasp of economics that keeps her away from the stage and its pointed questions. It is not as if she can ‘pull a Biden’ and start rambling incoherently about the foothills of the Himalayas.
The more Kamala Harris talks on policy detail, the more frightened voters get.
President Joe Biden might not know where he is, as Trump pointed out, but Harris has no idea where she is going.