Donald Trump targets trans kids while abandoning Americans' real needs around affordabilityhttps://www.advocate.com/opinion/trump-trans-kids-abandons-affordability 🔗John Casey (11 March 2026)
While millions of Americans are opening credit card bills they can't pay, buying gas they can barely afford, skimping on groceries that cost too much, and rationing prescription medications their insurance no longer fully covers, Donald Trump took to Truth Social for a reason that has nothing to do with affordability.
From his gilded digital, gold-plated soapbox, he declared that he would hold all legislative business hostage until Congress passed a voter suppression bill he'd modified with anti-transgender provisions.
The bill in question is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or the SAVE Act. It has already cleared the House, because Trump's lapdog, Mike Johnson, would pass any bill touted by Trump...
And now this so-called "SAVE" act sits in the Senate, waiting. In its current form, it mandates documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and dramatically curtails mail-in voting.
What makes the SAVE Act gambit particularly cruel is its double effect on the transgender community. The bill itself is a mechanism of exclusion, strict voter ID requirements, and gutted mail-in access that will keep marginalized people, including many LGBTQ Americans, further from the ballot box.
That's because transgender citizens, whose identification documents do not align with their gender, may face barriers when attempting to vote.
And now, by binding anti-trans provisions to the bill's fate, Trump has set up transgender kids as the convenient scapegoat if legislation stalls. Imagine the attack ads and the talking points. "Congress couldn't get anything done because of the radical trans agenda."
