President-elect Donald Trump was criticized after a resurfaced clip showed just how differently he felt about anti-trans bathroom bills in 2016—a far cry from his current stance.
Concerns about "bathroom predators" have long galvanized the right, perhaps most prominently during early 2016, when the North Carolina legislature passed a bill overturning local gay and transgender protections. The bill was a direct response to a prior nondiscrimination ordinance in the city of Charlotte, which had offered a wide range of protections.
Most notably, the Charlotte ordinance allowed citizens to use the restroom that best matches their gender identity. State lawmakers acted ostensibly out of concern that women and children could be victimized by sexual predators posing as transgender to enter women’s restrooms, a claim that was immediately contested by civil rights groups.
The proposal had immediate economic consequences: The governors of New York, Washington and Vermont halted most official state travel to North Carolina in response, business leaders vowed to relocate their company headquarters and entertainers resolved not to perform in the state until the law's repeal.
And that same year, then-candidate Trump said the following when asked about the matter:
"Leave it the way it is right now. There have been very few problems. Leave it the way it is."
"North Carolina, with what they're going through with all of the business leaving and all of the strife—and it's on both sides—you leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is.
"People go. They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble."
"The problem with what happened in North Carolina is the strife and economic punishment they're taking."
Notably, Trump responded "That is correct" when asked if former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner—who had only recently come out as transgender—would be allowed to use a bathroom at the White House that corresponds with her gender identity.
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Once in office, Trump did a 180 from the position he took in his 2016 interview.
Just two months into his first term, he rolled back Obama-era federal protections for transgender students, which had required public schools to allow students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
Two years later, his administration proposed a rule through the Department of Health and Human Services, which would allow faith-based foster care and adoption agencies to continue receiving federal funding while also permitting them to exclude LGBTQ+ parents.
Now, he's promised to be even worse, vowing in a speech earlier this year that, if re-elected, he would direct a panel formed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression and even violence.”
His Agenda 47—which aligns with many of the objectives outlined in Project 2025—includes promises to cut federal funding for schools that promote “radical gender ideology” to students and limit federal programs supporting it. He has also vowed to bar transgender athletes from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity.
Furthermore, he has pledged to use the federal government to “stop” gender-affirming healthcare for minors, labeling it as “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation.” He has falsely claimed that children are subjected to “brutal” gender-affirming surgeries while at school.
Trump has been harshly criticized.
The clip resurfaced after House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that transgender women would be prohibited from using women's bathroom facilities at the U.S. Capitol.
Johnson's announcement followed a proposal from South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace shortly after Delaware elected Democrat Sarah McBride as the first openly transgender member of Congress. The proposal appears to target McBride, who secured Delaware's lone seat in the House.
Over the weekend, McBride criticized the GOP, saying that "every single time we hear the incoming administration or Republicans in Congress talk about any vulnerable group in this country, we have to be clear that it is an attempt to distract.” She encouraged listeners to consider "what they’re doing to pick the pocket of American workers, to fleece seniors by privatizing social security and Medicare. Look at what they’re doing, undermining workers.”
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