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The Democrats’ Trans Trap

Republicans are gleefully seizing on James Talarico’s “six sexes” comments while Trump warns darkly that Democrats want “transgender for everybody.” New polling suggests how the party can defuse the G.O.P.’s “they/them” playbook before it trips them up again in November.

James Talarico
In the confines of his blue-leaning state House district, and his Love Thy Neighbor presbyterian worldview, Talarico was only saying what he believes. But his takes on gender politics are a much harder sell in a statewide election—especially in Texas, which hasn’t elevated a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. Photo: Alberto Silva Fernandez/Getty Images
Peter Hamby
March 24, 2026

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Donald Trump has been saying the word “transgender” a lot lately. He says it with Seussian repetition in the White House, at rallies, on Air Force One with reporters: Trans people? Trump doesn’t like them here, there, or anywhere. Trump is pushing the vague threat of “transgender” so hard in the midterms that he tried (and failed) this week to add an amendment banning transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports to the SAVE America Act, a bill about elections. Democrats, he promises, want “transgender for everybody.”