Trump Says Transgender Bathroom Issue Less Important Than Others

President-elect Donald Trump walks onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with his wife Melania after being named TIME’s “Person of the Year” for the second time, in New York on Dec. 12, 2024. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

President-elect Donald Trump stated that there were more important issues than the transgender bathroom debate when he was asked about the topic in a Time magazine interview published Thursday.

Trump was named by the magazine as its 2024 “Person of the Year” and gave an interview that touched on a range of subjects, including whether people who identify as transgender should be able to use bathrooms that don’t match their biological sex.

“I don’t want to get into the bathroom issue,” Trump said in response. “Because it’s a very small number of people we’re talking about, and it’s ripped apart our country, so they'll have to settle whatever the law finally agrees.”

He said he is a “big believer in the Supreme Court” and that he’s “going to go by their rulings.”

“I think their rulings have been rulings that people are going along with, but we’re talking about a very small number of people, and we’re talking about it, and it gets massive coverage, and it’s not a lot of people,” the president-elect said.

Trump was also asked about a slogan that he used in commercials: “Trump is for us and [Vice President Kamala] Harris is for they/them.”

“Well, it’s true, Trump is for us,” he said in response. “I mean, Trump is definitely for us, okay? And us is the vast, vast majority of people in this country. And also, I want to have all people treated fairly. You know, forget about majority or not majority. I want people to be treated well and fairly.”

In an October Fox News appearance, Trump said he would take executive action to bar transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, at the time noting there was controversy around an allegedly male volleyball player competing in a women’s college league.

“It’s such an easy question, and everybody in the room ... knows that answer, we’re not going to let it happen,” Trump said in response to a question about a possible ban.

Trump added that his administration will “stop it” because “it’s a man playing in the game.”

“Look at what’s happened in swimming. Look at the records that are being broken,” he said.

While speaking to Time magazine, the president-elect said he would look into President Joe Biden’s Title IX declaration that bolstered protections for transgender students, which has been challenged multiple times in the courts.

“I’m going to look at it very closely. We’re looking at it right now,” he told the outlet. “We’re going to look at it. We’re going to look at everything”

When declaring Trump its “Person of the Year,” Time said that it was because of his political comeback to win the 2024 presidential election in November. Runners-up included Harris; Tesla CEO Elon Musk; Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Catherine, Princess of Wales; Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum; Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and several others.

Trump was also named Times’ “Person of the Year” in 2016 after winning the presidency for the first time.

During his Time magazine interview, the president-elect was also asked questions on a number of policies and topics, including mass deportations of illegal immigrants, the economy, conflicts in the Middle East, his Cabinet choices, and government waste.