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

Five years after a mob of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn a democratic election, President Donald Trump Tuesday addressed some of the same lawmakers who were terrified that day. But instead of marking the dark moment in U.S. history, Trump used a phrase that inspired violent acts in Washington, D.C., that day — this time to attack transgender people.

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Some of his supporters, many of them violent January 6 insurrectionists whom he pardoned upon taking office for a second time in January 2025, gathered along the Ellipse and marched through downtown Washington as he again turned one of his most reliable political cudgels into a centerpiece of his message: transgender people.

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

Speaking to House Republicans at a closed-door party retreat at the Kennedy Center, Trump repeatedly invoked what he derisively described as “men in women’s sports,” telling GOP lawmakers that Democrats “fight like hell” to allow transgender women to compete in women’s athletics, and that the issue remains among the most politically potent weapons in his arsenal.

“They have a policy with, uh, men in women’s sports, men in women’s sports, and they fight like hell for it,” Trump said, repeating the phrase several times. “They still are.”

Related: Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military members

What followed was a familiar Trumpian riff: a cascade of anecdotes about marathon runners, weightlifters, boxers, and swimmers, delivered with a mix of mockery and grievance. He called trans-inclusive sports policies “so demeaning to women” and “so ridiculous,” asserting, without evidence, that transgender women were smashing long-standing records and overwhelming competition podiums.

Then Trump admitted that he treats the issue not just as a belief but as a political instrument. He said he avoids talking about it too often so Democrats will not “correct themselves” before elections, calling it a “98–2 issue” in his favor.

On an anniversary freighted with the memory of political violence and democratic rupture, the message was unmistakable: Transgender people remain a central foil in Trump’s campaign to define his enemies, animate his base, and frame the stakes of the coming midterms.

Related: Trump rants nonsense about transgender people instead of fixing affordability crisis at Pennsylvania rally

The emphasis fits a broader pattern. Over the last several years, Trump has increasingly injected transgender people into speeches and appearances that otherwise have little to do with LGBTQ+ policy, often invoking the phrase “transgender for everybody” as shorthand for what he portrays as a broader collapse of social order. Transgender lives have become, in his rhetoric, a kind of cultural weather vane — a symbol onto which larger anxieties about change, power, and belonging are projected.

Imara Jones, founder and CEO of TransLash Media, told The Advocate in an interview that Trump’s fixation on transgender people also reveals what he is not talking about.

Jones, a transgender woman, noted that at the retreat, Trump spent more time attacking trans inclusion than he did addressing affordability and the rising cost of living — a silence she said is deeply revealing. The room, she noted, was largely quiet when Trump touched on everyday economic pressures but responded most strongly to his anti-trans rhetoric.

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

“They know he’s disconnected on affordability,” Jones said. “That’s why this is what he leans on. It’s what gets the reaction. It’s what they’ve got.”

Jones said anti-trans rhetoric has become a core element of MAGA political identity and one of the most reliable tools for mobilizing turnout. “We can’t dismiss these as ‘greatest hits,’” she said about Trump’s mentions of transgender people in random conversations. “They [the MAGA base] view them as essential and vital political positions. This is an essential part of their political affiliation.”

Related: Transgender NSA employee files discrimination lawsuit against Trump administration

The political implications could be severe. Jones warned that 2026 is shaping up to be “a year of maximum danger” for transgender people, predicting that federal policy levers will increasingly be used to target trans communities and trans-led organizations. Last January, on the day Trump was inaugurated, he issued executive orders targeting trans identities. In the year since, he has stripped transgender people of the ability to serve in the military, curtailed access to gender-affirming care for transgender veterans and young people, and made it harder for transgender people to get valid identity documents.

“I don’t think there are any limitations on what they will do,” Jones said. “This is perhaps going to be the most dangerous year for trans people so far.”

Trump’s remarks on transgender athletes came alongside a sweeping grab bag of other grievances and proposals, from renewed attacks on election integrity to meandering comments on health care, abortion funding, and insurance markets — even as millions of Americans face disruptions to coverage following the expiration of tax subsidies.

But it was the anti-trans rhetoric that drew some of the loudest reactions in the room, Jones pointed out, reinforcing its status as emotional oxygen for Trump’s base.

In a statement to The Advocate, Brandon Wolf, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, turned Trump’s language back on him.

“HRC is also ready to ‘fight like hell’ against the President and any candidates who want to scapegoat our communities instead of actually helping American families live safer, healthier lives,” Wolf said. “Pro-equality candidates, backed by over 75 million Equality Voters, are ready to turn the page on this Congress in the midterms.”'

Watch Trump's remarks at the Kennedy Center below

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