President Trump revealed in a Thursday interview that he would be open to voting for a gay candidate for president.
Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera asked Trump on an episode of his podcast released Thursday if Americans would “vote for a gay man to be president.”
“I think so,” Trump said. “I think there would be some that wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t be among that group, to be honest with you.”
“I think that it doesn’t seem to be hurting Pete ‘Boot-edge-edge,’” Trump continued, using a phonetic pronunciation of former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s (D) name. Trump has previously joked about the former mayor’s last name. “It doesn’t seem to be hurting him very much.”
Trump added, “But there would certainly be a group. You know this better than I do. There would be a group that probably wouldn’t. But you and I would not be in that group.”
Seventy-six percent of Americans said they would vote for a gay or lesbian candidate for president in a 2019 Gallup poll. Among Democrats, 83 percent said they would vote for a gay or lesbian candidate, as well as 61 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of independents.
Buttigieg narrowly beat Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the Iowa caucuses last week in state delegates, although Sanders led in the state’s popular vote and both campaigns have requested recanvassing of the votes.
Trump said in an interview last year that he thinks “it’s great” seeing an openly gay presidential candidate appearing onstage with his husband, saying that it can be taken as “a sign of great progress.”
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, to whom Trump presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom last week at the State of the Union address, drew pushback Wednesday for taking aim at Buttigieg and calling him a “gay guy, 37 years old, loves kissing his husband on debate stages.”
“Then they’re sitting there, and they’re looking at Mayor Pete, a 37-year-old gay guy, mayor of South Bend, loves to kiss his husband on the debate stage. And they’re saying, ‘OK, how’s this gonna look, a 37-year-old gay guy kissing his husband onstage next to Mr. Man Donald Trump? What’s gonna happen there?'” Limbaugh said.