In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference Sunday in Orlando, Fla., former president Donald Trump called the idea of transgender female athletes competing in women’s sports ‘crazy,’ and the mostly unmasked attendees in the packed ballroom gave him a standing ovation.
Trump also used a term that trans people and allies find offensive: “Biological males.”
“Joe Biden and the Democrats are pushing policies that would even destroy women’s sports,” Trump declared to boos.
“Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males. It’s not good for women. It’s not good for women’s sports, who worked so long and so hard to get to where they are. The records that stood for years, even decades, are now being smashed with these… Smashed!”
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The recording skips for a second here, perhaps because of a problem with the feed.
“If this is not changed, women’s sports as we know it will die. they’ll end. It’ll end,” he said.
Trump suggested because of trans athletes, coaches would reject cisgender women as recruits for their teams, and he did so in his too-soon forgotten style of adlibbing from his prepared remarks.
“What coach, if I’m a coach, you know, I want to be a great coach. What coach, as an example, wants to recruit a young woman if her record can easily be broken by somebody who was born a man? Not too many of those coaches around, right? If they are around, they won’t be around long when their record is, we’re 0 and 16 but we’re getting better. No, I think it’s crazy. I think it’s crazy what’s happening. We must protect the integrity of women’s sports. It’s so important. We have to.”
Watch his remarks about trans athletes in the tweet below:
Trump decided rant about transgender women being involved with sports.
— Coping MAGA (@CopingMAGA) February 28, 2021
Any of his points could easily be debunked by someone who is capable of reading Wikipedia. pic.twitter.com/2KJwZ8lHCY
Following the standing ovation, Trump remarked that he had been cautioned about delivering those remarks about trans athletes.
“Is that controversial?” he asked the crowd. “Somebody said, ‘Well, that’s going to be very controversial.’ I said, ‘That’s okay. You haven’t heard anything yet.’” And the conservatives cheered.