Trump admits anti-transgender attacks are one of GOP’s ‘great sound bites’

President Donald Trump offered a candid explanation Wednesday night for repeatedly targeting and demeaning transgender people. He believes it helps Republicans win elections.

Speaking at the Republican Party’s first national midterm convention in Dallas, Trump misgendered transgender women and girls while discussing their participation in sports, then described the issue as campaign material best deployed shortly before voting begins.

“I don’t like to do it much before the election,” Trump said. “I like to wait about a week before the election.”

Trump said he was raising the subject earlier because he was “petrified” Democrats might change their position. “That will really hurt us,” he said. “That’s one of our great sound bites of all time.”

Related: 11 times Donald Trump has randomly brought up his ‘transgender for everybody’ obsession

He claimed without evidence that opposition to transgender athletes competing on teams matching their gender identity was a “99 to one” issue. In fact, a May 2025 Gallup poll found that 69 percent of U.S. adults said transgender athletes should compete on teams corresponding with their sex assigned at birth, while 30 percent said they should compete based on their gender identity — a substantial divide, but nowhere near Trump’s claim. Polling on voters’ priorities, meanwhile, shows their concerns lie elsewhere.

A June GLAAD survey of more than 5,000 U.S. adults found that just 8 percent of registered voters considered transgender issues a top concern, compared with 44 percent who named inflation and the rising cost of living. Seven in 10 preferred candidates focused on affordability rather than restricting transgender rights, while nearly three-quarters supported a candidate who said everyone deserves to live without fear or discrimination.

Trump claimed that the press had made up “affordability” as an issue, asking about the price of eggs on his second day in office.

Republicans and their richest benefactor are investing heavily in targeting the more than 2.8 million transgender Americans age 13 and older — about 1 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Williams Institute’s most recent estimate.

The Advocate previously reported that the first wave of midterm advertising from Elon Musk’s America PAC focused almost exclusively on transgender athletes and gender-affirming care. Musk has reportedly authorized the PAC to spend at least $100 million helping Republicans. Its ads target Democrats James Talarico in Texas, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Josh Turek in Iowa and Mary Peltola in Alaska.

The Human Rights Campaign’s 2024 post-election polling found that 64 percent of voters remembered seeing anti-transgender advertising, but only 4 percent said opposition to transgender healthcare or sports participation motivated their vote.

“The MAGA politicians on stage in Dallas have driven up costs, decimated health care access, supported discriminatory policies, and propped up a system of political corruption and profiteering that leaves hardworking Americans behind,” HRC President Kelley Robinson told The Advocate in a text message through a spokesperson. “So it’s no surprise they’re relying on fear, division, and anti-LGBTQ+ attacks to try to distract from their own failures. It won’t work. HRC and 74 million Equality Voters will make sure of it in November.”

Related: Donald Trump uses the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection to attack transgender people

Trump’s speech sprawled beyond transgender people. He attempted a tortured spelling joke connecting “Democrats” with “dumb,” warned of a “sick cloud” of communism, repeated unsupported claims about millions of migrants and thousands of murderers entering the country, and asked voters to “pretend that I’m on the ballot.” He also promised an unspecified healthcare plan, an end to cash bail and a permanently sealed border.

The spectacle came as Trump’s approval rating fell to 33 percent in a recent Financial Times/Focaldata poll, with 57 percent of voters saying they were financially worse off under him.

Many Republicans in competitive races skipped the gathering, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan and Michigan Rep. Tom Barrett, Reuters reported.

Those who attended did not fill the 21,000-seat American Airlines Center. MS NOW’s Vaughn Hillyard told Chris Hayes that Dallas Mavericks games draw more people, as footage showed broad sections of empty seats. Reuters likewise found the upper rows empty and side sections sparsely occupied.

Trump called the arena “packed.”