Resurfaced clip shows how dramatically Trump has turned against trans rights

These days, Donald Trump is well known for his anti-trans stance. But ten years ago, when he was still a first-time contender for the Republican presidential nomination, he held quite different views.

As reported by People, when asked for his thoughts on a North Carolina law limiting bathroom use during a NBC Today Show town hall event in 2016, Trump said: “You leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble.”

During the same interview, Trump was asked whether Caitlyn Jenner, who had come out publicly as trans the previous year, could use “any bathroom she chooses” in Trump Tower. “That is correct,” he confirmed.

@pinknews A resurfaced interview from 21 April 2016 shows Donald Trump telling NBC’s ‘The Today Show’ that transgender people should be able to “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” adding that Caitlyn Jenner would be welcome to use any restroom at Trump Tower. At the time, the comments came amid national debate over North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill,” with Trump suggesting the issue had been largely unproblematic before new restrictions were introduced. The “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act," was signed into law in North Carolina in March 2016. It required transgender individuals to use public bathrooms corresponding to the s** on their birth certificate rather than their gender identity, while also voiding local anti-discrimination ordinances. The bill was repealed in March, one year later, after intense pressure. A decade later, the landscape for trans rights in the United States looks markedly different. Numerous states have enacted or proposed laws restricting access to bathrooms, healthcare, sports participation, and legal recognition for transgender people. What was once framed by Trump in 2016 as a non-issue has since become a political wedge issue that Trump himself, alongside his administration, has continued to focus on. #DonaldTrump #transgender #CaitlynJenner #USPolitics #LGBTQIA ♬ News / Truth Investigation / Investigation / Suspicion / Consideration(1013150) – A.TARUI

In a social media video uploaded the week after the town hall event, Jenner filmed herself visiting the women’s restroom at Trump Tower. “Thank you, Donald, really appreciate it,” she said in the video.

North Carolina was the first state in the US to ban transgender people from using restrooms consistent with their gender identity in government buildings, including schools and universities. However, the law sparked severe economic backlash and was partially repealed in 2017.

Trump’s 2016 comments are a sharp contrast to his current, staunchly anti-transgender stance and policies. Since being sworn-in as the 47th president of the United States on 20 January 2025, he has enacted a series of anti-LGBTQ+ executive orders, many of which specifically target the trans community.

On his first day back in the Oval Office in January 2025, Trump signed an executive order entitled Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.

The order, which requires government employees to use the term “sex” rather than “gender”, declares it will be the “policy of the United States to recognise two sexes, male and female… these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”.

The executive order followed directly on from Trump’s inauguration address in which he said there were only two sexes. At the time, he vowed that he would end “the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life”.

The rules on sex markers on IDs, including passports and driving licences, were changed: now, they must show either male or female, based on how an individual was assigned at birth – meaning “X” makers which might be used by intersex, non-binary and gender-non-conforming individuals are no longer recognised.

The order also demanded that federal agencies remove all “internal and external messages that promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology”, which could simply be using the phrase “gender” in place of “sex”.

Furthermore, federal funds can no longer be used to “promote gender ideology” and trans prison inmates are no longer be held in female facilities or able to access gender-affirming care while incarcerated.

One particularly high-profile trans person who has been negatively impacted by Trump’s anti-trans passport policies is none other than… Caitlyn Jenner.

Caitlyn Jenner said in a recent interview with conservative commenter Tomi Lahren that she asked President Donald Trump for help navigating the impact of his administration’s passport policy.

She told Lahren that Trump’s policy has negatively impacted her, saying: “What do I do? This is a safety factor. I can’t travel internationally anymore. I can’t use my passport.”

She also described having the sex marker M in her passport as a “big problem,” but clarified: “I don’t blame President Trump. I love him”, despite the fact she had appealed to him for help but received no response.