During a recent public appearance, President Donald Trump was asked a straightforward yet significant question: “Mr. President, since Democrats seem to struggle answering this question, what is a woman and why is it important that we understand the difference between men and women?” Trump’s response was characteristically candid.
The inquiry came shortly after Trump introduced Alina Habba as the interim US attorney for the District of New Jersey. He seemed eager to address the topic, stating, “It’s sort of easy to answer for me, because a woman is somebody that can have a baby under certain circumstances… a woman is a person who is much smarter than a man I’ve always found.”
Trump elaborated further, saying, “A woman is a person who doesn’t give a man even a chance of success and a woman is a person that in many cases has been treated very badly. What happens with this crazy issue of men being able to play in women’s sport is just ridiculous and very unfair to women and very demeaning to women, that’s got to be about a 94 percent issue.”
He criticized Democrats for supporting policies that allow men to compete in women’s sports, expressing optimism that such positions would harm their electoral chances. “I watched Democrat congressmen fighting for the fact that men should be allowed to compete in women’s sport, I said I hope they keep that going because they’ll never win an election.”
“Women are incredible, they do so much for our country. We love our women, we’re going to take care of our women,” Trump added.
Recently, Trump signed an executive order prohibiting transgender women from participating in women’s sports. He declared that “the war on women’s sports is over,” emphasizing that his administration “will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.”
However, earlier this week, a federal judge blocked Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the US military, labeling it as ‘plainly’ discriminatory.
District Judge Benjamin Settle criticized the government’s rationale, noting, “The government’s arguments are not persuasive, and it is not an especially close question on this record.” He added, “The government has… provided no evidence supporting the conclusion that military readiness, unit cohesion, lethality, or any of the other touchstone phrases long used to exclude various groups from service have in fact been adversely impacted by open transgender service. The Court can only find that there is none.”
This comes shortly after US District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the order, arguing that it violates an equal protection clause due to discrimination based on transgender status and sex. Reyes criticized the ban, saying, “Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
She continued, “Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them.”
If you’re affected by these issues and need to talk to someone confidentially, you can contact the LGBT national hotline at 888-843-4564, available Monday to Friday from 4pm-12am ET and on Saturdays from 12pm-5pm ET.