DeSantis doubles down amid criticism over Trump-LGBTQ video

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) doubled down on the video his campaign shared last week that attacked former President Trump over his past remarks in support of the LGBTQ community.  

“I think, you know, identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream, where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that’s totally fair game because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite, that he doesn’t think that you should have men competing in women’s things like athletics,” DeSantis said on OutKick’s “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” show on Wednesday.

DeSantis’s campaign retweeted a video last week that featured a clip from the 2016 Republican National Convention in which Trump vowed to do “everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens.” It also highlights Trump’s opposition during the 2016 campaign to legislation that would bar transgender individuals from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.

The video then pivots to DeSantis, touting headlines that described his policies on transgender individuals as “extreme,” “draconian,” “totalitarianism in disguise” and “unwarranted and un-American.”

The video has been met with criticism from within the GOP, including from some LGBTO Republicans who told The Hill they would no longer be supporting DeSantis after the video was released. DeSantis responded to the criticism, saying he has always been clear on where he stands on issues, including transgender athletes in sports.

“And so we’ve been very clear on it, that we believe in protecting the rights of our girls and the rights of women athletes to be able to participate with fairness and with integrity,” he said. “And ultimately when you talk about some of the gender ideology that’s being unleashed in this country, in the state of Florida, we are fighting back against that.”

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During his 2024 campaign, Trump has opted to use more extreme rhetoric on LGBTQ issues, vowing to “ban men from participating in women’s sports” and referring to gender-affirming surgery for transgender youth as “child sexual mutilation.”

When reached for comment about DeSantis’s remarks, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung responded: “A desperate DeSanctus campaign, with a flailing candidate, in its last throes of relevancy.”