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On today’s breaking news, we cover the shocking possibility that Trump is a AAA-grade expert in compartmentalization (emphasis mine):

In an interview with the Washington Post Monday, Trump said that if elected president, he would rescind these directives protecting transgender people. With Republicans leaders across the country overwhelmingly opposing the trans student protections in particular, this is no doubt what the Party wants to hear from their candidate.

But everything else Trump said in the interview sounded like he actually supports transgender people. He made the segue in a line denying that trans protections were a civil rights issue: “I don’t view it as civil rights or not civil rights. I think it’s something where we have to help people — and hopefully the states will make the right decisions.”

The Post summarizes that Trump “repeatedly said transgender people should be protected under the law.” He even seemed understanding of why it’s become a big issue. “You’ve got to protect all people, even though it’s a tiny percentage of 1 percent. I think from that standpoint, [states] should come up with a policy that’s going to work for everybody and protect people.”

They are, Donny Drumpf. They’re protecting the women and children, see. (As long as they’re cis)

Republicans have stated on numerous occasions why they oppose nondiscrimination ordinances for trans folk:

“While it’s important to look after the rights of the minority, it’s also important to look after the rights of the majority.” Lockhart even said that he’d be willing to abandon federal funding for the state’s schools “if we can’t find any other way to create a safe environment for our kids.”

…

As many other lawmakers have done, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves played the father-of-daughters card. “As the father of three young daughters, I am deeply disturbed by the direction this administration is trying to push our society,” he wrote on Facebook. “Please pray for our country.”

…

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge agreed, accusing the federal agencies of “bullying and blackmail tactics” that raise “serious safety concerns for students and parents.” Like other attorneys general, she suggested her openness to taking legal action “to keep our students safe.”

So, you have a Federal government whose job is to ensure certain rights are guaranteed for all its citizens, regardless of their various demographics. You have State-level governments who are fucking this up, passing laws to “protect” the (cis & gender conforming) girls and women from “predators” (who don’t actually exist, at least as trans women “infiltrating” spaces that already belong to them) and in so doing are violating the protections defined by Federal law.

Why on Earth is your idea of a rational response to this to take your hands off the steering wheel? Why do you trust individual States to make the correct choice, when there are literally dozens of State-level governments violating Title VII and Title IX on their own accord? Your argument that minorities still need to be protected is absolutely correct, but your strategy is completely asinine. While we’re at it, let’s trust feral monkeys to not throw poo at us.

Like so many of Trump’s positions, it’s difficult to parse exactly what position he’s taking, like last year when he said, “I would end Obamacare and replace it with something terrific, for far less money for the country and for the people.” He seems to agree with Democrats on what the outcome should be (trans protections), but he will cater to the Republican approach (state policies) to arrive at that outcome. In this case, Republicans have made it clear that not only do they oppose protections for the trans community, but they support policies like North Carolina’s HB2 that enshrine discrimination into law. By appealing to both, it thus becomes apparent that Trump has no real position at all.

Do people seriously fall for this? It’s completely vacuous. The man is full of noninformation. Most of the time, he’s not even wrong, because his statements transcend the means by which rightness and wrongness are determined and into a realm of “what the actual fuck did you just say?” And this creature is potentially the “Leader of the Free World.” For fuck sake.

America, you stress me out. You’re like the drunk roommate that keeps breaking everyone else’s shit. You’re slamming back a mickey of vodka while waving your loaded gun, and when anyone has the audacity to suggest that maybe that’s kinda dangerous, can you not, you shout something incoherent about freedom.

Just stop. Please.

-Shiv