On his way to New York to watch the Ryder Cup golf tournament, President Donald Trump spoke with reporters Friday about the looming government shutdown.
“They want to have transgender for everybody. These people are crazy, the Democrats. So if it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down,” Trump said.
While it’s unclear what “transgender for everybody” actually means, Trump is on a mission to falsely blame a potential shutdown on Democrats—primarily their efforts to fund health care for low-income Americans.
Trump has already canceled a meeting with Democratic leadership, signaling his unwillingness to even pantomime negotiation on the issue. And his use of trans people as a bogeyman and threats to gut the federal workforce to justify his intransigence on a short-term budget deal have led Democrats to call him “unhinged.”
But there’s no time to discuss this—there’s golf to be watched.
