Donald Trump’s latest campaign ad targets Kamala Harris for her past support of government-funded gender-affirming surgeries for transgender prisoners and detainees.
The ad plays on her response to a 2020 ACLU questionnaire, where Harris endorsed policies ensuring that incarcerated transgender individuals have access to medically necessary treatments, including gender transition surgeries.
While this was part of her 2020 campaign platform, her team has clarified that this is not a focus of her 2024 campaign, at least publicly.
Critics are calling the ad transphobic.
The ad takes a sharp tone, featuring images of transgender individuals like Rachel Levine, a prominent tansgendered Harris-Biden health official, and Sam Brinton, a former Biden-Harris non-binary appointee involved in a high-profile scandal after they were caught stealing clothing and suitcases from airports.
It concludes with the message: “Kamala’s for they/them, Trump is for you,” tapping into cultural tensions around gender identity and prison rights.
Critics have accused the ad of transphobia, especially for its use of these specific figures to stoke fear and derision. Trump’s campaign has leaned into this messaging, drawing on past policies Harris supported to paint her as too progressive and out of touch with mainstream voters. Meanwhile, Harris’s camp has not emphasized this issue as part of her current platform.