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| A school sign makes fun of Donald Trump's lie that schools are conducting transgender surgeries on children. |
How desperate is Donald Trump to change the possible huge defeat of Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections? So desperate that he is falling back on his lies about the trans community which some say helped him win in 2024.
At a recent rally in Georgia, Trump claimed that schools in six states are secretly conducting trans surgeries on children.
From CNN:
At a rally in Georgia on Friday, he said, “We got critical race theory and transgender mutilization (sic) insanity out of our schools. I mean, we have five states where your child goes off to school as Tim and comes back as Tammy, three or four days later. It’s true. And teachers make – somebody makes a decision. Can you imagine? ‘Goodbye, Timmy. I love you so much. I’ll see you later.’ And you say, ‘Where’s my son? My son is in the hospital.’ Can you imagine? Can you imagine? They don’t even need approval. It’s sick. You’ll have five – I think Minnesota and some others – I think it’s five or six states. You know that, right?”
CNN factchecked this claim and found it to be . . . wait for it . . . a lie.
There is no state in which schools would not need parental approval to send a child to a hospital for elective surgery. And just like in 2024, experts in gender identity care told CNN that they do not know of a single case in which a US school had secretly sent a child away for gender surgery.
The White House itself couldn’t provide one example proving Trump’s claim. Five conservative organizations we contacted in search of any examples did not respond.
The CNN article goes into more detail as to why this claim is a lie. I would suggest that folks read it.
This is not the first time this year that Trump has told wild stories about the trans community. In August, he claimed that hospitals were performing "reverse" trans surgeries at his orders. Of course, that comment was called out for the bullshit it is:
Adrian Shanker, who served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for health policy and senior adviser on LGBTQI+ health equity at the Department of Health and Human Services, tells The Advocate that Trump’s confusion demonstrates why politicians should not make personal medical decisions
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“I don’t really know what President Trump means by reverse surgeries, but the reality is that he should leave medical decision-making up to the patient and their providers to discuss what medical care is right for a certain patient,” Shanker says. “These kinds of decisions really don’t have room for politicians in the middle of that conversation.”
Trump’s “wild statement,” Shanker says, is evidence that politicians do not belong in the “patient-provider dyad.”
Trump and the Republican wasted the two years they had full power. They did nothing for the American people except making our lives more difficult by not doing anything about high prices, inflation, or the poor economy. And then there is that unnecessary war Trump got us into with Iran; the war presently going on with no end in sight.
Eager to change the subject and scare Americans into giving them another two years in power, they are pulling ugly rabbits out of dark hats by labeling Democrats as communists and - as seen here - conjuring up the image of transgender boogeyman eager to snatch up children and do surgeries on them.
We've seen them do stuff like this before and the fact that the president of the United States is telling an absolutely ludicrous lie to what seems to be a desensitized public and press could be seen as shocking.
But is it?
People are constantly asking why their fellow Americans put up with Trump. Why do they bend over backwards to support or make excuses for his lies?
The answer is easy, you dummies.
It's because the power and prestige of the presidency. When members of his cabinet figuratively bend at the knee in meetings with him or when Franklin Graham debases his own alleged religious integrity by ignoring Trump's lies while overinflating his nonexistent virtues, it's not because they are devoted followers of Donald Trump. It's not because they love him. They are drooling, power-hungry sycophants eager to curry his favor for what he can dole out from his position as (ugh) leader of the free world.
Whether it be basic access for an article, a prestigious job in government, conservative judges, being photographed with him, publicity from being around him, or at the very least an inflated sense of self-esteem because you support him, the key to Trump's power isn't Trump. It's simply the old story about the lure of power.
Still, it's a sad realization that Americans gave virtually unlimited power to a geriatric moron. It's an even sadder contemplation that many of these same Americans are willing to make every lie he tells, every error he makes, and every death he causes look like the miracles of Jesus as long as they can feed off of his undeserving presidential teat.
It all proves that voting is not only the power we have, but also the power we give. That's something we should remember.
