DeSantis Defends Anti-Trump Campaign Ad Widely Decried As Homophobic

DeSantis was asked on streaming show Tomi Lahren is Fearless about a campaign ad released by the unofficial Twitter account DeSantis War Room and then shared by the governor’s presidential campaign, which shows Trump saying he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” and expressing support for transgender women using female bathrooms and competing in Miss Universe, contrasted against DeSantis’ policies targeting transgender and LGBTQ rights.

Host Tomi Lahren asked DeSantis about backlash against the ad, which was released the last day of Pride month, to which the Florida governor said he believes it is “totally fair game” to “[identify]

Donald Trump as really being a pioneer in injecting gender ideology into the mainstream … because he’s now campaigning saying the opposite.”

The governor pointed to Trump letting transgender women compete in beauty pageants and his apparent flip-flopping on the issue, saying DeSantis has instead “been very clear that we believe in protecting the rights of our girls” and his campaign is “fighting back” against “gender ideology” both in and out of schools.

DeSantis claimed it’s “an attack on women’s rights more broadly to say that gender is fluid, and I think it’s also an attack on truth itself,” referring to fights for transgender rights as a “social fad.”

The DeSantis campaign ad garnered widespread criticism from the left, with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay, saying he “do[esn’t]

understand the mentality of somebody who gets up in the morning, thinking that he’s going to prove his worth by competing over who can make life hardest for a hard-hit community, that is already so vulnerable in America.”

The ad was also criticized by some on the right, with Log Cabin Republicans—a group representing LGBTQ conservatives—calling the ad’s message “divisive and desperate,” Caitlyn Jenner saying the governor had “hit a new low” and Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) telling the Hill that while he “used to think [DeSantis] was a great governor,” he’s now “starting to think differently.”