Trump has peaked

Yeah, Ron de Santis is a Republican hot favourite. He will make much of this. He can also point out that Trump must have know in 2016-2020 that this shit was going down and did nothing.

Isn’t one of his main potential rivals for Republican nomination next time round making hay with this issue? DeSantis, or am I thinking of someone else? I haven’t been paying a huge amount of attention to US politics but it seems like he’s been a bit slow to read the room here. He’d be daft not to exploit this issue, it’s an open goal.

But we already were!

is this a pre Groundhog Day in joke?!

OTOH British feminists have long known that the 'nuculur family' and gendered roles are detrimental to the well-being of women and children.

That history doesn't just disappear because an orange man wants Big Parma and off-licence hormones investigated.

Already in full flow on Twitter - I saw the chatter before I knew what had actually happened. There's lots of triumphant 'you're all right wing bigots!!!' going on.

I don't think Trump is doing it because he wants to support women and girls but if the TRA's want to go down that route, then they might want to examine their own links to horrible people. 'It was all for Beth' and all that.

And as we've seen recently in Scotland, shouting about how kind and progressive you are while standing in front of signs calling for women to be beheaded sets a bit of a jarring note. And as Lorna Slater found out to her cost, you need to have evidence to substantiate claims about right wing funding etc or you end up looking a lying idiot.

Very well put.

Bad timing. Just as Britain was starting to understand the problems, courtesy of Sturgeon ...
Now we will all be labelled Trump-supporters.

Unfortunately, The Nicola got all confused between The Donald and the Scottish public.

Indeed. His perspective on this comes from a position of transphobia and opportunism, not a genuine concern for women and children.

This is a man known for sexually exploiting women, including very young women ffs.

Well the Democrats only have themselves to blame for giving Trump room to talk actual sense. People are angry about this, and it will win him votes.

Oh missed the nuclear family bit.

His speech writer has hung out with Matt Walsh.

He was also anti abortion if it got him the votes. He wasn't such a moral beacon in the past.

Will say anything for votes.

I've noticed that far right extremist characters do tend to set their stall out with reasonable ideas to tempt people in. Look at UKIP- their Candidate publications were all about regerating their local high streets and campaigning for better transport links. With these reasonable ideas we're a side order to the banquest of racism.

Confused

Trump said this all along! I thought I was looking at a zombie thread?!

He is a transphobe. He's totally uninterested in this except as a point to beat the Democrats. Nothing about the safety or dignity of women. He is actually the person Sturgeon was talking about.

"Child sexual mutilation"

Good phrase.

Can't stand him otherwise but gosh he's bang on.

The right wing in the US have used cultural wedge issues to get the vote out for decades. It started with the Southern Strategy, then abortion, then guns, now this.

They don't give a shit about women, it just happens that the Venn diagram between their "traditional" families bullshit and feminist opposition to gender ideology crosses over on this one point.

And women's safety is hardly Trump's concern.

He's a hate-mongering transphobe. A real one, not a "believes sex is binary and immutable" one that we get accused of being. If supporting trans people would get him votes he'd probably lie about and pretend to support them because he's a shameless in pursuit of what he wants. But he hates them because they are of no use to him.

He hates women, he hates lesbians and gay men, he hates immigrants, he hates people with disabilities. He is racist.

The fact he has made this statement has nothing to do with the protection of women's rights, nor to protect vulnerable young people from irreversible damage.

I can agree with Hitler, Pol Pot and Trump that the earth is round. It doesn't mean I'm on their side.

Well that's interesting. Wonder how long it will be for the "you're discussing Trump - you're all right wing fascists" to arrive. Then we can have some fascinating discussions about supporting male rapists, sex offenders and paedophiles to access victims in women's prisons versus listening to a vile politician speak (mainly) sense about the sterilisation and mutilation of children's bodies and minds.

You mean when he talked about grabbing them by the ladydick?

But seriously, my reaction was oh, fuck. No surprise the hard right is doubling down on this given the spectacular clusterfuck America's left has made of this issue. But it's going to be making it even harder to get anywhere.

Oh bloody hell.

Why are the far right the ones getting it right??!

Yank here. Trump doesn't care the slightest about this issue. He's just putting bait in the water to see who bites at it. His poll numbers are bad and steadily getting worse, so he's looking for a plan B. Even if people believe that he cares about this issue, it will not improve his numbers significantly.

He ruined it with the nuculur family shiz. Up till then he was, as pp said, reading the room quite well.

They won't.

They'll go "orange man says this! It is therefore our moral duty to disagree!" It's oppositional thinking.

But that could be the Democrats sunk now.