Trump has spent over $19 million on anti-trans ads even though they turn off voters

The re-election campaign for former President Donald Trump has spent over $19 million on two transphobic TV ads airing in swing states during NFL and college football games. The ads have already aired 55,000 times since October 1. The leading super PAC supporting Trump, Make America Great Again Inc., has also spent over $1.1 million airing a similar ad more than 6,000 times over the same time period, CBS News reported.

While the ads attack Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ support of providing lifesaving care to trans inmates (something required by federal law), Harris pointed out in a recent Fox News interview that the Trump administration supported the same policy during his presidency.

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Also, new polling suggests the massive spending and ad blitz may not play out in Trump’s favor because most voters aren’t worried about gender-affirming care and are less likely to support transphobic political candidates.

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Trump’s transphobic ad shows pictures of Harris next to a drag queen, a trans woman, and a nonbinary person. It then accuses Harris of supporting “taxpayer-funded sex-changes for prisoners and illegal aliens” — a crude restatement of her 2019 ACLU questionnaire answer that all federal prisoners, including trans immigrants detained by border agents, deserve medically necessary care, which includes gender-affirming care and surgeries.

“Kamala is for they/them,” the 30-second ad says. “President Trump is for you.” The super PAC’s ad similarly attacks Harris over her position on this issue.

The Constitution requires U.S. prisons and detainment facilities to provide medically necessary care, and courts have upheld this requirement, though some facilities still deny it to inmates.

During Harris’ highly anticipated interview with Fox News, host Bret Baier played her the ad and asked if she is “still in support of using taxpayer dollars to help prison inmates or detained illegal aliens transition to another gender.”

Harris responded, “I will follow the law, and it’s a law that Donald Trump actually followed… Under Donald Trump’s administration, these surgeries were available to – on a medical necessity basis – to people in the federal prison system, and I think frankly that ad from the Trump campaign is a little bit of throwing stones when you’re living in a glass house.”

A recent LGBTQ Nation fact check found that Federal Prison System budget documents from 2018 – during Trump’s presidency – indeed indicated that trans detainees were entitled to medical care that “may include pharmaceutical interventions (e.g., cross-gender hormone therapy), hair removal and surgery (if individualized assessment indicates surgical intervention is applicable).”

Gender-affirming care is medically necessary, according to leading medical associations. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Offices for Civil Rights says denial of coverage for gender-affirming care violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. Earlier this year, federal courts ruled that gender-affirming care is medically necessary and must be included in state-funded health insurance plans.

Responding to the ads, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) spokesperson Brandon Wolf said, “Anti-trans attacks don’t work. Time and time again this kind of fear-mongering has been a political loser, and the American people will see through it again in November.” 

Polling suggests Wolf may be right. A recent Gallup poll found that only 38% of likely voters consider trans rights as “extremely” or “very important” to their vote. Polls in five battleground states conducted by The New York Times and Siena College show that the majority of Americans think society should accept transgender people’s gender identities.

Recent HRC polling shows that only 5% of voters say they’re concerned about gender-affirming care — comparatively, 52% are more concerned about economic inflation raising the cost of living. Additionally, 61% said they won’t support candidates who support banning gender-affirming care — including 41% of Republicans.

The HRC’s polling also found that 70% of voters feel anti-LGBTQ+ bills have gone too far and that politicians have targeted trans people to divide Americans and “maintain their political power.”

HRC president Kelley Robinson said transphobic ads didn’t help Republicans win important races in 2022 and 2023, and such ads won’t help the GOP this year either.

“It shows that Republicans are desperate right now,” Robinson said. “Instead of articulating how they’re going to make the economy better or our schools safer, they’re focused on sowing fear and chaos.”

Nevertheless, Trump’s co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita told NBC News that the ads successfully hold Harris accountable for her position. “It’s the last thing on Earth they want to talk about,” he said. “So we’ll talk about it for them.”

Transphobia is a major plank in the GOP’s 2024 presidential campaign

The transphobic attack ad isn’t surprising. Both Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) have lied about Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), allowing his state’s government to “kidnap children” from unsupportive parents to change their gender. The claim is untrue, as Walz has never signed any such law or order, nor are state officials legally authorized to take trans kids away from unsupportive parents.

Trump has also claimed that schools are conducting surgeries on trans youth without parental consent. This is also a lie. No schools are providing such surgeries, doctors typically refuse to provide such surgeries to minors, and doctors never provide gender-affirming surgery to minors without parental consent.

Furthermore, the Republican National Platform pledges to “keep men out of women’s sports” and cut federal funding for any schools “pushing radical gender ideology” or “inappropriate sexual or political content on our children.”

Chapter 9, Section 5 of the platform promises to “end Left-wing gender insanity,” stating, “We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban Taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop Taxpayer-funded Schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX Education Regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.”

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