President-elect Donald Trump appeared to break with a fellow Republican's crusade on Thursday, instead siding with an incoming Democrat who stands to become Congress' first trans member.
The dispute began last month when Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) appeared to pick a fight with Delaware Rep.-elect Sarah McBride. Mace has repeatedly made headlines since the election over controversial statements she has made about transgender people, marking a significant shift from her previous stance.
Last month, Mace proposed a resolution to ban transgender women from using women's restrooms in the Capitol. She has turned to inflammatory language in the public spat, including labeling transgender people as "mentally ill" and saying: "I'm not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis, in the women's locker room."
Her remarks come after she described herself last year as “pro-transgender rights” and expressed support for children to explore their identities.
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Mace's crusade has garnered the support of fellow Republicans including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — but perhaps not the leader of the MAGA movement.
As part of Trump's interview with Time magazine, which named him "Person of the Year," Trump was asked if he agreed with McBride that, "we should all be focused on more important issues" than what bathroom trans people use.
"I do agree with that. On that — absolutely," he replied.
Before saying he agreed with McBride, Trump declined to say whether he thought trans people should be allowed to use their preferred restroom.
"I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue," Trump said. "Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they’ll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees."
Trump added that he's a "big believer in the Supreme Court" — which features three of his own nominees.
"And I’m going to go by their rulings, and so far, I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people.”