DeSantis defends video attacking Trump over LGBTQ record: “That’s totally fair game”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended a provocative video shared by his political team that attacked former President Donald Trump’s record on LGBTQ rights and was widely criticized as homophobic.

In his first remarks about the video since it was shared on Twitter by the “DeSantis War Room” account last week, the governor late Wednesday argued that Trump’s past comments in support of including transgender women in beauty pageants were at odds with the former president’s current rhetoric.

“I think identifying Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream where he was having men compete against women in his beauty pageants, I think that’s totally fair game because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite, that he doesn’t think that you should have men competing in women’s things like athletics,” DeSantis said in an interview with conservative commentator Tomi Lahren on her streaming show “Tomi Lahren is Fearless.”

The video, which was created by another Twitter user, portrays Trump as supportive of LGBTQ rights, featuring a clip of him saying that he will do “everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” in the wake of the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

The video also shows Trump expressing support for transgender people using the bathroom of their choice and saying that transgender women should be able to compete in the Miss Universe Pageant, the beauty pageant that Trump used to own.

It then goes on to highlight DeSantis’ hardline stance on LGBTQ issues, erratically flashing a series of pop culture references, memes and headlines portraying him as “dangerous” on LGBTQ issues. One headline featured in the video reads: “DeSantis Signs ‘Most Extreme Slate of Anti-Trans Laws in Modern History.’ ” It’s followed up by clips from the film “American Psycho” and the British television series “Peaky Blinders,” as well as images of DeSantis with lightning bolts shooting out of his eyes.

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment on DeSantis’ defense of the video.

DeSantis, who is trailing Trump by yawning margins in most polls of the nascent 2024 Republican presidential primary, has sought to position himself to the right of the former president, particularly on culture war issues, as he looks to win over the support of the GOP’s most conservative voters.

On the campaign trail and in fundraising pitches, he has touted his efforts to roll back LGBTQ rights in Florida and promised to do the same nationally if elected president.

Several of his administration’s initiatives have run into legal setbacks in recent weeks, with federal judges freezing state efforts to ban transgender adults from accessing gender-affirming care under Medicaid and block access to puberty blockers for transgender children, among other things.

The video shared by the “DeSantis War Room” account drew intense criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans, who accused the governor’s campaign of employing homophobic tactics.

The Log Cabin Republicans, which describes itself as “the nation’s largest Republican organization dedicated to representing LGBT conservatives and allies,” called the video “divisive and desperate” and warned that DeSantis had “alienated swing-state and younger voters.”

Ric Grenell, a former Trump administration official, criticized the video as “undeniably homophobic.”

Caitlyn Jenner, whose images were featured in the video shared by the DeSantis team, called it a “new low” for the governor.

“DeSantis has hit a new low. But he’s so desperate he’ll do anything to get ahead - that’s been the theme of his campaign. You can’t win a general, let alone 2028 by going after people that are integral parts of the conservative movement!” she tweeted.

It also drew criticism from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who panned DeSantis in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday by raising questions about what purpose the video was intended to serve.

“I’m going to leave aside the strangeness of trying to prove your manhood by putting up a video that splices images of you in between oiled-up, shirtless bodybuilders,” he said. “And just get to the bigger issue that is on my mind whenever I see this stuff in the policy space, which is, again: Who are you trying to help? Who are you trying to make better off? And what public policy problems do you get up in the morning thinking about how to solve?”

Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director for DeSantis’ campaign, pushed back on Grenell’s accusations of homophobia, tweeting that “in a country as vast and diverse as the USA, identity politics is poison.”

“Opposing the federal recognition of ‘Pride Month’ isn’t ‘homophobic,’ ” she wrote. “We wouldn’t support a month to celebrate straight people for sexual orientation, either... It’s unnecessary, divisive, pandering.”