Trump Signs Order To Ban Federal Support For 'Barbaric' Child Gender Transitions, Elon Musk Reacts
Trump's executive order said it would not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support child gender transition procedures, saying they were "maiming" and "sterilising" children.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) signed an executive order to end federal support for gender transitions for people under age 19, his latest attempt to roll back protections for transgender people across the country that had been one of his election promises.
“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition" of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures," the order stated.
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The executive order said medical professionals are “maiming and sterilising a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions". It also labels guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science."
The order directs that federally-run insurance programs, including TRICARE for military families and Medicaid, exclude coverage for such care and calls on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.
‘My Great Honour’: Trump On Banning Support To Gender Transition
Taking to his Truth Social platform, Trump said, “Today, it was my great honour to sign an Executive Order banning the chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children in the United States of America. Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called “gender affirming care," which has already ruined far too many precious lives."
Trump referred to these practices as “barbaric medical procedures" and said his order will direct agencies to use every available means to cut off federal financial participation in institutions promoting child gender transition procedures.
Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to care. Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals.
Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors. The order encourages Congress to adopt a law allowing those who receive gender-affirming care and come to regret it, or their parents, to sue the providers.
The push is the latest by Trump to reverse Biden administration policies protecting transgender people and their care. Hours after taking office, Trump signed another order that seeks to define sex as only male or female, not recognising transgender, nonbinary or intersex people or the idea that gender can be fluid. That has resulted in the State Department halting issuing passports with an “X" gender marker.
Elon Musk Reacts To Trump’s Ban
In a post on X, Elon Musk supported Trump’s latest move and asserted that children cannot consent to such gender-affirming procedures. “Children cannot consent. That is why there are laws protecting minors. Those who perpetrated this evil should be in prison for life," he said.
Children cannot consent. That is why there are laws protecting minors.Those who perpetrated this evil should be in prison for life. https://t.co/R8RXTJZS0u
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 29, 2025
Notably, Musk has a transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who has been estranged from him since 2022 after she filed a petition to legally change her name and gender, seeking to distance herself from Musk. The Tesla CEO accused Wilson of adopting extreme ideologies and said, “the woke mind virus killed my son."
On the other hand, Wilson had described Musk as a cold and narcissistic father, claiming he was an absent parent who did not support her transition. She claimed that the billionaire harassed her as a young child over her effeminate traits.
Meanwhile, trans rights supporters have promised to challenge Trump’s order. “t’s very clear that this order, in combination with the other orders that we’ve seen over the past week, are meant to not protect anyone in this country, but rather to single-mindedly drive out transgender people of all ages from all walks of civic life," said Harper Seldin, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project.
(with AP inputs)
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