Trump hurls anti-trans slur at South Carolina Democrat Annie Andrews. The White House won’t explain why

President Donald Trump repeatedly used an anti-transgender slur on Monday to attack Dr. Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in South Carolina.

In a Truth Social post endorsing Republican Sen. Darline Graham, Trump used the slur three times, including as a mocking nickname for Andrews, who is not transgender. Hostility toward transgender people has become a persistent feature of his second presidency. The Advocate is not reproducing the slur.

Trump accused Andrews, a pediatrician and mother of three, of supporting “Transgender for Everyone,” along with “Open Borders,” “Defunding the Police,” “High Taxes,” and a “Weak Military,” and claimed that she would seek to take away South Carolinians’ guns.

Andrews did not directly address Trump’s language in her response.

“As a mom and a pediatrician, I’m in this race to fight for my patients, my three kids, and South Carolina,” she said in a statement to NBC News, adding that she was focused on lowering costs and improving life for families.

Related: Trump mocks cisgender women as weak in bizarre anti-trans sports rant to factory workers

The Advocate asked the White House whether Trump would use an anti-Black slur against a Black political opponent and, if not, why he considers an anti-transgender slur acceptable. The Advocate also asked why the president is using this kind of derogatory language about Americans.

The White House did not respond.

The Human Rights Campaign called Trump’s writings “sad, disgusting, pathetic diatribes of a lame duck president with record-low approvals.”

Trump’s choice of insult was not an isolated reference to transgender people. Since returning to the White House, the president has repeatedly invoked them in speeches, social media posts, policy announcements, and attacks on Democrats, even as transgender people make up a small fraction of the U.S. population.

At times, Trump himself has remarked on their ubiquity in political conversation.

“Everything is transgender. Everybody is transgender. That is all you hear about,” Trump said during an Oval Office appearance in March 2025.

By then, his administration was already making transgender Americans the subject of sweeping federal action.

Related: Six key takeaways from Trump's speech to the nation, including 'transgender for everybody'

Trump’s words have been accompanied by policy

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government would recognize only two sexes, male and female, and directing agencies to eliminate federal recognition of gender identity.

What followed has touched nearly every part of transgender life that intersects with the federal government.

Trump ordered the Pentagon to remove transgender service members, including decorated troops with years of service. As The Advocate has reported, federal courts have repeatedly scrutinized the policy, and the administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the Pentagon to fire transgender troops before a constitutional challenge goes to trial.

His administration moved to restrict identity documents for transgender and nonbinary Americans, targeted transgender students through federal education policy, and sought to bar transgender women and girls from women’s and girls’ sports.

Healthcare has become another major front.

Related: Trump wildly claims hospitals are performing ‘reverse surgery’ on trans patients ’at my order'

Trump’s Justice Department has issued subpoenas seeking sensitive medical records involving transgender young people, including patient information from hospitals and providers. Families have gone to court to keep those records private. At least six major hospital systems have also reached agreements with the federal government involving gender-affirming care programs for minors.

The administration has sought to remove transgender women from women’s federal prisons and restrict gender-affirming medical care for transgender prisoners. Last week, it asked the Supreme Court to allow restrictions on hormone therapy to take effect while litigation continues.

At the Department of Veterans Affairs, the administration has dismantled transgender-specific services and LGBTQ+ programs. And in 2025, it eliminated the specialized LGBTQ+ option on the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline before Congress forced its restoration. When The Advocate asked last week whether the restored service would respect transgender callers’ names and pronouns, the Department of Health and Human Services instead said it remained aligned with Trump’s orders opposing what the administration calls “gender ideology extremism.”