Trump: Transgender bathrooms ‘unbelievably expensive’

Donald Trump on Monday said building transgender restrooms nationwide would carry a high price tag.

“It would be unbelievably expensive nationwide,” he told host Bill O’Reilly on Fox News’s “The O’Reilly Factor.” “It would be hundreds of billions of dollars. I think people would rather have us spending money on other things.”

{mosads}Trump said his Trump Organization buildings nationwide typically lack bathroom facilities specifically for transgender individuals.

The GOP’s presumptive presidential nominee said he believes in protecting transgender Americans from discrimination, however.

“The number of people we’re talking about is really a small number,” Trump said. “This is such a tiny part of our population. We have to protect everybody, even if it’s one person.”

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) in March signed a law requiring people to use public restrooms that match their sex assigned at birth, setting off a political firestorm. The Department of Justice earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against North Carolina over the controversial legislation.

The lawsuit states that H.B. 2 violates provisions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Title IX of the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.

“This action is about a great deal more than bathrooms,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in announcing the lawsuit. “This is about the dignity and respect that we accord our fellow citizens.”

North Carolina also sued earlier this month, calling the Justice Department’s suit “baseless and broad overreach.”

The Obama administration issued guidance earlier this month instructing all public school districts nationwide to let transgender students use the bathrooms matching their gender identity.

Trump on Monday cautioned President Obama against dictating national transgender policy, arguing that the states are better equipped for handling the issue.

“I would, generally speaking, leave it to the states,” he said. “Obama’s getting into a very tricky territory.”