(Screenshot from NowThis News’ YouTube)
Announcing his plans to run again for president in 2024, former President Donald Trump’s speech from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Nov. 15 recycled themes of economic populism, international trade and fear mongering over immigration from Latin American countries that were central to his 2016 campaign.
Trump did touch on more current subjects in his hour-long speech, however, first by downplaying the defeat suffered by Republican candidates in last week’s midterm elections, as well as those who have blamed him for the party’s weaker-than-expected showing at the ballot box.
He then recited popular recent Republican talking points about President Joe Biden’s age, inflation, energy prices, election integrity and instability overseas, blaming the current administration for America’s dicey withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Next, the former president expressed admiration for China and Singapore’s ruthless prosecution of drug dealers, suggesting that U.S. leaders emulate their example, before turning his attention to matters concerning transgender youth in schools and in the military.
Schools engaged in “radical civics and gender insanity” will lose federal funding, Trump promised.
“We will not let men, as an example, participate in women’s sports. No men! My people tell me ‘Sir, that’s politically incorrect to say.’ I say, ‘that’s okay, I’ll say it anyway,’” he said. “As commander-in-chief, I will get Biden’s radical left ideology out of our military.”
Trump appeared to reference Biden’s reversal, with an executive order, of the Trump administration’s ban on transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces.
As the former president delivered his speech, LGBTQ groups published statements condemning Trump’s planned 2024 run.
“GLAAD documented more than 200 attacks against LGBTQ people throughout the Trump-Pence administration,” the LGBTQ media monitoring organization said in a statement. “It was an administration defined by anti-LGBTQ actions and rhetoric and policy that empowered white supremacists and fueled racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and misogyny. The unmistakable message from the 2022 midterms is that Americans value freedom, support the democratic process, and reject the divisive policies of the recent past. GLAAD urges the media to include former President Trump’s record against LGBTQ equality in their campaign reporting.”
Annise Parker, president of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, in a statement said “Another Donald Trump presidency presents a serious threat to our nation’s LGBTQ community which continues to face rampant homophobia and transphobia fueled by his divisiveness. Donald Trump and those who wish to follow in his footsteps continue to use our community — and LGBTQ kids in particular — as political pawns in their quest for power.”
The Human Rights Campaign issued a press release documenting “Trump’s timeline of hate.”
“Even as Republican voters have become increasingly supportive of LGBTQ+ people — registering majority approval of nondiscrimination projections and marriage equality — [Trump] and his extremist MAGA supporters have worked tirelessly to try to slander and demonize us, our relationships, and our families,” stated Joni Madison, HRC’s interim president. “His time in office saw a relentless onslaught of unconscionable executive orders that made it harder to live as an LGBTQ+ person in this country.”
Among the songs that played before Trump took the stage was “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” a tune whose next refrain is “singing the song of angry men.”
Trump’s decision to run again for the presidency, and to announce his candidacy so early is widely believed to be — at least in part — a means of dodging the many investigations by state and federal law enforcement agencies in which the former president has become enmeshed.
