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While speaking to supporters in Erie, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, former president Donald Trump continued his attacks on transgender Americans while also suggesting that a state-sponsored day of “real rough” police violence would reduce crime.
While outlining a long list of promises to his right-wing supporters, Trump vowed to keep “men out of women’s sports” — a common rhetorical spin on the plan to ban transgender people from participating in athletics.
“We will deliver low taxes, low regulation, low energy costs, low interest rates, low inflation so that everyone can afford things like groceries, a car and a home and have money left over,” Trump began, before going on to list more nefarious proposals. “We will stop the invasion and migrant crime, strengthen our military, build a missile defense shield over our country, keep critical race theory and transgender insanity out of our schools, and we will keep men out of women’s sports.”
While Trump’s economic talking points are aimed at Americans who feel the real sting of rising grocery prices, the rest of his promises are based on fantastical fabrications and outright lies. Over the weekend, the Washington Post pointed out that Trump has been distorting data to fuel a narrative about a wave of violent crime caused by migrants. (No real data supports that theory.) And, of course, while Trump routinely promises to “strengthen our military,” this does of course leave out the fact that the United States already has the most well-funded military in the world.
Furthermore, Trump’s use of the phrase “transgender insanity” appears to describe, well, trans people just existing in society — and he said it not once but twice over the weekend, as well, deploying the phrase while addressing a crowd in Wisconsin, per the Advocate.
Alongside his usual anti-trans message, Trump also tested out some new material to his crowd this weekend, including suggesting that a day of violence would be good for Americans.
While speaking in Pennsylvania, Trump suggested that a way to stop crimes such as shoplifting is to allow police to use “extraordinarily rough” measures during “one really violent day … one rough hour, and I mean real rough.”
Several people online, as well as many late-night hosts, pointed out that Trump’s comments seemed to have been calling for a policy similar to the 2013’s The Purge, a horror film that depicts an America in which all violent crime is legal for 12 hours. Though the original film in the Purge franchise had deeply trenchant messaging, subsequent sequels have become even more political, with deep warnings about inequality, systemic abuse and racial injustice. Trump’s comments have also drawn comparisons to Kristallnacht, a night of violence against Jews carried out by Nazi forces in 1938.
Trump has previously advocated for police violence as the answer to crime. In 2023, he suggested police should be able to shoot shoplifters on sight. Trump has also called for “immunity from prosecution” for police officers, though he — somewhat — clarified that stance during an interview at the National Black Journalists’ Association convention.
“There’s a big difference between being a bad person and making an innocent mistake,” Trump said. “Sometimes you have less than a second to make a life-and-death decision, and sometimes very bad decisions are made. They’re not made from an evil standpoint, but they’re made from the standpoint of ‘they’ve made a mistake.’”
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