Republicans sure have been running anti-trans ads

In the 2024 election, the Republicans have spent over $120 million in anti-trans ads.

"In 2022, Republicans in Michigan made a major mistake: They spent more money on anti-transgender ads than on reinforcing economic messaging. As a result, Democrats won a trifecta in the state for the first time in 40 years. Now, there are signs Republicans may be repeating the same error. A new set of polls in the crucial "blue wall" swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania shows that Harris is matching Trump on the economy. This is happening as Trump spends more money on anti-trans advertising than immigration, housing, and the economy combined.
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In 2022, Republicans spent $50 million on anti-trans advertising. One of the primary focuses of that spending was Michigan, where they used the ads to target Democrats as well as Issue 3, an abortion rights amendment. This is similar to how Republicans are targeting abortion rights amendments today by saying reproductive freedom will codify "transgender healthcare" into law. These ads failed; Issue 3 passed, and Democrats took the trifecta in the state for the first time in 40 years. They faced similar losses in every other swing state where similar ads were deployed."
— Harris Surges On Economy Voters In Swing States As Trump Fixates On Anti-Trans Ads: The latest polls from swing states reveal that Trump may be repeating the same mistake that cost Republicans many races in 2022. Erin Reed, Nov 1, 2024

The candidates' policies are learnable.

"LGBTQ advocates fear the intensified campaign will sow fear and hate against a group that makes up less than 1% of the U.S. adult population, per an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data -- and which already experiences high rates of discrimination and violence.
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Here's what we know about the issues and how each candidate expects to legislate transgender policies."
— Kiara Alfonseca, Election fact check: Donald Trump, Kamala Harris on transgender issues: Trans issues have played a key role in the Republican campaign. ABC News, November 1, 2024

2024 history

"This September, at the annual Moms for Liberty summit in Washington, DC, Former President Donald Trump doubled down on anti-trans rhetoric with the totally false claim that schools were performing gender-reassignment surgeries on kids, saying "Think of it, your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation." He repeated those claims again at a rally in Tucson." — Imara Jones, founder and creator of TransLash Media, "What's at Stake for Trans People in This Election," Newsweek, October 15, 2024

Jones continues:

"The reason that this lie about kids has become a talking point in the general election is because of a long-standing coordinated right-wing effort to spread vast quantities of medical misinformation about transgender people and make the debate over "gender ideology" a mainstream topic."

And:

"How anti-trans politics became a core pillar of the Republican Party isn't a mystery. At TransLash Media, we've exposed how institutions like the Heritage Foundation spent decades incepting anti-trans medical misinformation into the public dialogue and creating a focus on trans identity as a core motivating issue for Republican voters."

Update: He spent $215 million.

See also

— Donald Trump spewed anti-trans lies at Tucson rally for 7 minutes. Here are the claims debunked: The lies about children transitioning, Olympic athletes, and more just keep on coming. Trudy Ring, Advocate, September 16 2024

— Voters Prefer Candidates Who Are Supportive of Transgender Rights, Think Recent Political Ads Have Gotten Mean-Spirited and Out of Hand, Data for Progress, October 24, 2024

— My essay, The $120 Million Anti-Trans Joke. It's a 3-min read on Medium.

What Can We Make of Polling on Trans Issues? Riki Wilchins, Assigned Media, November 18, 2024

Were the ads to blame for Harris's loss? No, argues Mady: Countering the Narrative: 14 Reasons Why Trans Rights Shouldn't Be Blamed For Kamala Harris's Election Loss: A Comprehensive Data-informed Report. Dec 1, 2024

Oh, a month after the election, even before taking office, Trump admits he won't be able to do anything to bring down consumer prices.

Iker Seisdedos interviewing Judith Butler:

"Q. The phantasm seemed to work for Trump’s campaign. One of his slogans was: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.” The issue was whether or not to give gender treatment to the migrant inmate population, which is a tiny portion of the society. But that, and Harris’ failure to refute it, was a powerful reason for the Republican victory.
A. I doubt that that was the reason for his victory. People were already living with many fears about the economy, war, climate catastrophe, and Trump knew how to exploit and repackage those fears to scapegoat minorities. That message appealed to anxiety. Trump put his anti-migrant discourse together with his anti-trans and anti-feminist discourse: Harris, the woke, the Marxist, the feminist, Black and brown, who presumably supports trans surgery (terrifying) on migrants who flooded over the border (also terrifying). On the left, we don’t know how to appeal to people’s deep passions. We think we’re very smart and very critical. But where’s the radical imaginary by which people will be passionately absorbed? I did not like the blame game that started after the defeat. I did not like the pundits who said: “Oh, we didn’t realize how anti-trans and anti-migrant people are.”
Q. It wasn’t just Trumpism. Some Democratic voices say it’s time to move beyond the issue of trans rights in areas like sports, which affect very few people.
A. You could say that about the Jews, Black people or Haitians, or any very vulnerable minority. Once you decide that a single vulnerable minority can be sacrificed, you’re operating within a fascist logic, because that means there might be a second one you’re willing to sacrifice, and a third, a fourth, and then what happens?"
— Judith Butler, philosopher: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’, Iker Seisdedos, El Pais, December 14, 2024