Former President Donald Trump told conservative moms Friday that he’s “for parental rights all the way” after decrying school boards that he feels are run “like dictatorships.”
Trump, 78, made the remarks at the annual Moms for Liberty conference in Washington, DC, which was hosted by the influential parent’s rights group of the same name that boasts 310 chapters with 130,000 members in 48 states.
“You have these parents that end up in fistfights at school meetings, and the parents mean well. They end up getting arrested, put in prison,” Trump said during his fireside chat with Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, referencing brawls that have broken out during school board meetings across the country in recent years related to transgender rights and school curriculums.
“I’m for parental rights all the way,” the Republican nominee for president declared. “I don’t even understand the concept of not being [for parental rights].”
“And these school boards – they’ve become like dictatorships, and the parents are screaming for the life of their child, a lot having to do with transgender, a lot having to do with a lot of other things,” Trump continued.
“You’ve got to give the parents [rights]. The parents truly love the kids,” he argued. “Some of these people on the boards, I think they don’t like the kids very much … you have to give the rights back to the parents.”
The former president charged that the Harris-Biden administration “has been the opposite” of pro-parental rights in education.
“This administration, it’s like the FBI goes after the people like it’s some kind of an insurrection,” Trump said. “It’s crazy.”
The former president appeared to be referencing the White House’s apparent engagement with the National School Boards Association before an October 2021 memo was sent out by the organization asking the Harris-Biden administration to investigate outspoken parents and likening them to domestic terrorists.
That same month, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the FBI would take the lead on the law enforcement response to what he called “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”
“They called us domestic terrorists, President Trump, for speaking out at school board meetings,” Justice informed the former president.
“Well, we’ll change that on the first day. I promise,” Trump pledged.
“You just wonder, where’s the mindset to take the parents rights?” he added.
During the hour-long event, Trump also signaled a willingness to putting rules in place barring transgender females from competing in women’s sports and restricting gender-changing medical procedures, suggesting it’s “common sense.”
“I like to say that we’re the party of common sense,” Trump said. “All of the things we’re talking about – no men in women’s sports, no gender operations. I mean, there’s these operations – It’s crazy.”
“Europe has gone totally away from it,” he claimed, referring to gender reassignment surgery. “Now we’re way behind them. They don’t do it anymore, and this is just horrible. But who could even believe this is happening?”