In remarks at the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia on Friday, Donald Trump pledged to sign an executive order curtailing gender-affirming care at any age.
“On Day One, I will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to cease the promotion of sex or gender transition at any age. They’re not gonna do it anymore,” Trump told the audience. “I will declare that any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth no longer meets federal health and safety standards—they will be terminated from receiving federal funds effective immediately. And I will ask Congress […] to send a bill to my desk prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states.”
The remarks were part of a broader program that Trump previewed at the conference for Moms for Liberty, a far-right group that has championed anti-LGBTQ legislation. Trump’s speech came at the end of the conference’s first day, which began with a speech by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. Moms for Liberty summit attendees chanted, “We love Trump,” as the ex-president arrived more than an hour late for his scheduled remarks.
Trump opened with familiar grievances about immigration, the media, and the multiple ongoing criminal cases against him. But after sounding some of the more well-worn notes from his stump speech, Trump suggested a series of sweeping educational policies that would far exceed measures he took while in office, particularly regarding race and LGBTQ issues.
Amid a diatribe about crime in classrooms, Trump called for increased incarceration of students. “I will completely overhaul federal standards of school discipline and juvenile justice to get violent monsters out of your children’s classrooms and into reform schools or correction institutions,” Trump said.
He also pledged to cut funding for schools that teach issues related to race and gender.
“On Day One, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” Trump said.
That remark, coupled with his pledge to block federal agencies from promoting gender-affirming care for people of any age, comes as the right retools much of its 2024 message around attacks on transgender rights. Trump had previously pledged to ban gender-affirming care for minors, if elected.
Trump also signaled interest in gutting the federal Department of Education. “I want to move our education system back to the states.”
Nevertheless, he indicated plans to sic the federal government on individual schools. After complaining about pronouns, Trump announced that “for any schools that are engaged in these militant and country-destroying practices, I will instruct the DOJ to pursue them as violators of the Establishment Clause, or the free exercise clause, of our constitution.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Trump pledged to abolish teachers’ tenure and to “fire the radical left accreditation groups that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and freaks.”
One of his suggestions would effectively eliminate funding for most schools, based on their near-universal vaccine requirements for students.
“I will not give one penny to any institution that has a vaccine mandate or mask mandate from kindergarten through college,” Trump said.
