US President-elect Donald Trump promised to “stop the transgender madness” on Sunday on the first day of his presidency, as Republicans – set to control both houses of Congress and the White House – continue their push against LGBTQ rights. Is kept.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual assault, to keep transgender people out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” the president-elect said at an event for young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona. “
He also vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports”, and said that “it will be the official policy of the United States Government that there are only two sexes, male and female.”
Speaking at the AmericaFest conference in a border state that he easily carried in the November election, Trump promised immediate measures against “immigrant crime”, vowing to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. , and doubled down on his call to restore US control. Panama Canal.
Transgender issues have rocked American politics in recent years, as Democratic- and Republican-controlled states have moved in opposite directions on policy such as medical treatment and what books on the topic are allowed in public or school libraries.
Last week, when the US Congress approved its annual defense budget, it included a provision to block funding of some gender-affirming care for transgender children of service members.
In his speech on Sunday, which was somewhat of a victory lap, Trump made massive promises for his second term — and painted a bleak picture of the four years before it, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. . He defeated in 2024 elections.
Referring to his inauguration, Trump said, “On January 20, the United States will turn the page forever on four long, terrible years of failure, incompetence, national decline, and we will enter a new era of peace, prosperity, and national greatness.” Will inaugurate the era.” -In.
“I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop chaos in the Middle East, and I will stop World War III, I promise.”
He added, “America’s golden age is before us.”
The president-elect has not yet publicly stated how he plans to quickly end the war in Ukraine or bring peace to the Middle East.
But echoing the same aggressive language he has sometimes used against US allies in the past, Trump said on Sunday that Panamanian officials “did not treat us fairly” in operating the Panama Canal.
He previously said that the fee for use of the canal – construction of which was initiated by France and completed by the United States – is “ridiculous”.
And he said Sunday that if the principles behind the 1970 treaty are not followed that gave Panama full control of the canal, “then we will demand” that it be turned over to the United States “completely, quickly and without Any question” may be returned.
Thousands of ships pass through the major Central American waterway each year, making it vital to U.S. and international commerce.
The president-elect, who routinely blames immigrants from Latin America for America’s drug problems, reiterated his pledge to launch “the largest deportation campaign in American history” immediately after taking office, and later He went further, saying he would “immediately designate (drug) cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”
“This criminal network operating on American soil will be dismantled, deported and destroyed,” Trump said.
During his first term in office in 2019, Trump vowed to impose terrorist designation on Mexican cartels following the killing of nine US citizens from the Mormon community in Mexico.
But he relented after an appeal by then Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
