Trump once approved of allowing transgender contestants into Miss Universe: report

Former President Donald Trump vowed in a speech at a rally in Conroe, Texas on Saturday, January 28th, 2023 that he will prohibit transgender women from competing in female sports if he is reelected in 2024.

"We will ban men from participating in women's sports," Trump said, as quoted in a January 31st NBC News analysis.

Trump claimed that it is "so ridiculous" that "young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males" and declared that "it's not good for women. It's not good for women's sports, which worked for so long and so hard to get to where they are." Trump added that "if this does not change, women's sports as we know it will die."

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During his first year in office on August 15th, 2017, Trump signed an executive order forbidding transgender Americans from openly serving in the United States Armed Forces, which President Joe Biden repealed on January 25th, 2021.

But as CNN revealed on Friday, Trump's past is peppered with instances where he expressed support for transgender participation in the Miss Universe pageant, which he co-owned from 1996-2015.

"In since unreported radio and television interviews from spring and summer 2012, Trump celebrated the interest in a 23-year-old transgender woman named Jenna Talackova participating in a Canadian pageant," CNN explained. "He then later effusively praised the winner of the Miss USA pageant, Olivia Culpo, for saying that transgender women should be allowed to compete."

CNN recalled that it was in fact Trump who in 2012 approved of the pageant reversing its ban on transgender contestants after women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred threatened to sue on behalf of Talackova. Trump told the network at the time that "we made the decision two days before we even heard that (Allred) was involved," although he admitted that "had I known she was involved, maybe I wouldn't have made that decision because she's easy to beat."

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CNN's report continues at this link. NBC's is here.