WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Trump on Friday lamented the growing acceptance of transgender Americans as he appeared at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to remove references to LGBTQ identity and structural racism from K-12 classrooms.
Trump said transgender women should not be allowed to play girls' sports and that access to gender-affirming medical care should be limited. The Republican presidential candidate also slammed critics who accused him of using Arlington National Cemetery for a campaign photo op.
But during an hour-long “fireside chat” in Washington, he mostly stuck to his favorite topics: slamming President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, condemning illegal immigration and reminiscing about his parents' marriage, his path to becoming a star on the reality TV show “The Apprentice” and the debate that ended Biden's reelection campaign.
“Our country is being poisoned. Our schools and our kids are suffering so much because they're coming into our classrooms and they're sick and they can't speak English,” Trump said of migrants crossing the border illegally. “It's insanity.”
Trump said school boards have become “like a dictatorship” hostile to parents' wishes, echoing conservative frustrations that have bubbled up publicly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I fully support parental rights. I can't even understand the concept of not having parental rights,” Trump said.
Trump did not address the U.S. military's claim that an Arlington National Cemetery employee was “abruptly shoved away” during an argument with an aide while visiting the graves of soldiers killed in a terror attack during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan this week, but said he got to know the families and they asked to take photos with him.
Photographs from the visit show Trump standing beside the graves and giving a thumbs up, next to relatives of Staff Sergeant Darin Taylor Huber and Staff Sergeant Nicole Gee.
“People are devastated,” Trump said Friday. “They'll never be the same again, and it's all Biden's fault.”
Trump walked into a Washington hotel ballroom like he does for all of his rallies, standing to applaud until the end of Lee Greenwood's “God Bless the USA,” followed by chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump.” Sitting onstage with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, he bounced around from topic to topic in a style familiar to his supporters, reciting some of his favorite rally staples.
The former president was trying to solidify the support and enthusiasm of a large portion of his base. Moms for Liberty's more than 130,000 members are mostly conservatives who agree with the president that parents should have a greater say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations have no place in schools.
But Trump also risks alienating moderate voters who see Moms for Liberty's work as too extreme to be justified by a presidential candidate.
A year ago, Moms for Liberty was seen by many as a rising force in conservative politics that could be crucial in bolstering support for Republican candidates, and the group's membership has soared since it was launched in 2021 by parents protesting student mask mandates and remote learning during the coronavirus pandemic.
But in recent months, a series of embarrassing scandals and a disappointing performance in local elections have cast doubt on Moms for Liberty's influence.
The group has also voiced its support for Project 2025, a detailed and controversial blueprint for the next conservative president, from which Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself.
Moms for Liberty serves on Project 2025's advisory board, and the authors of the document's education chapter held a “strategy session” at the group's Friday meeting.
Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, said the negative perception of Moms for Liberty across the country could increase potential liability for Trump when he meets with co-founder Justice.
“It would certainly help rally his supporters,” Jewett said, “but would that be enough to overcome the backlash?”
In an interview before the rally, Justice disputed the notion that the group's influence is waning, noting that 60 percent of Moms for Liberty-backed candidates won in Florida's recent primary.
This is “a really big deal,” she said, especially considering that many of the school board candidates the group supports are first-time candidates running against incumbents. She also pointed to three Moms for Liberty members who won Florida's House of Representatives primary, showing the group's influence in other political offices.
Trump spent a few minutes of his fireside chat discussing transgender issues in adult sports, including the recent Olympics, which saw outrage over a female boxer who was widely misidentified as transgender.
President Trump said he did not want to fight Algerian boxer Imane Kherif, who was identified as female at birth, after falsely claiming she had a sex change.
Trump's education proposals include promoting school choice, giving parents more of a say in education, ending lifetime employment for teachers, providing financial rewards to top teachers and offering funding incentives to states and school districts that allow parents to directly elect school principals.
They also call for abolishing the Department of Education, banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports and cutting funding to schools that promote “inappropriate racial, sexual or political content” or require vaccinations. There were no new education proposals on Friday.
A party atmosphere enveloped attendees waiting for Trump's arrival in a Washington hotel ballroom, wearing shirts with slogans like “Moms for Trump” and “We Don't Co-parent with the Government,” as they munched on buffet-style desserts, drank beer and cheered on a cover band playing country hits.
Vice President Kamala Harris has criticized her Republican opponent for threatening to dismantle the Department of Education and voiced opposition to efforts to limit lessons about race.
Democrats have praised her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, for signing an executive order protecting the rights of LGBTQ people in his state to receive gender-affirming medical care, while Republicans, including Trump, have slammed him over the move.
During a campaign rally in the battleground state of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, early Friday, Trump blasted the media for its unfavorable coverage, specifically calling out CNN for its interview with Harris and Waltz on Thursday.
Minutes later, a man ran into the media area, climbed over a bike rack fence and reached the stairs where television reporters were watching the rally. Private security guards pushed him back and police eventually used a Taser to subdue him.
Trump initially said of the man, “He's on our side,” but it was unclear what that meant. As police were taking the man away, the former president remarked, “What better place to have fun than a Trump rally?”
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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.
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