Donald Trump's successful 2024 presidential campaign, along with its Republican allies, spent more than $215 million on television ads that stoked resentment against trans people. One ad from the Trump campaign, aired in heavy rotation, sought to convince voters that their tax dollars, with Vice President Kamala Harris' support, were being diverted to trans criminals. 

"Kamala supports taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners and illegal aliens," the narrator claimed. "Kamala is for they/them; President Trump is for you."

In a 2019 questionnaire, Harris said she supported providing trans inmates with "medically necessary care for gender transition, including surgical care." This is required under a 1970 Supreme Court case, which states that "prisons are legally required to provide necessary medical care to inmates, or risk violating the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment." That is why, under the Trump administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, provided "an array of gender-affirming treatments, including hormone therapy, for a small group of inmates who requested it during Mr. Trump’s four years in office."

Legalities aside, providing taxpayer dollars for trans prisoners is not a politically popular position. An analysis by Future Forward, a Super PAC that supported Harris, found the ad "shifted the race 2.7 percentage points in Mr. Trump’s favor after viewers watched it."

But the ad is effective because it's highly misleading. There are almost no taxpayer dollars spent on surgeries for trans inmates because almost no surgeries have been provided. Only two trans inmates have ever been provided with surgical care — and only at the conclusion of lengthy legal battles. There are no known cases of undocumented immigrants being provided with taxpayer-funded surgeries while detained.

In other words, it was an issue ginned up by the Trump campaign to exploit voters by demonizing trans people.     

Congresswoman Nancy Mace (R-SC) used to reject this kind of politics. “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality,” Mace said in a March 2021 interview with the Washington Examiner. “No one should be discriminated against.” Mace added that she believed "religious liberty, the First Amendment, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist." Mace added that she had "friends and family that identify as LGBTQ" and "[h]aving been around gay, lesbian, and transgender people has informed my opinion over my lifetime." 

Mace supported "compromise" legislation that protected LGBTQ from discrimination while providing notable exceptions for religious institutions. “I feel like it’s my duty to speak up on these issues, and to sponsor legislation on these issues, because I want people on both sides of the aisle to know that there are Republicans that care,” Mace said. “That we are compassionate. There are many of us that want equality for everybody.” (She opposed the more expansive Equality Act.)

In June 2021, Mace tweeted we should "all come together to celebrate the challenges our LGBTQ+ has overcome and the bright future ahead."

In 2023, while Mace opposed the participation of trans women in collegiate athletics, she described herself as "a woman who is pro-LGBTQ." Mace said she did not "care how you dress" or "what pronoun you take." In September 2023, Mace was one of 18 Republicans who joined Democrats to defeat "an amendment that would defund Pride Month celebrations sponsored by the State Department."

In the days after Trump's victory, however, Mace's views and rhetoric on trans people have changed significantly. 

On Monday, Mace introduced a resolution banning trans women from using female bathrooms in the U.S. Capitol. The resolution is targeted at a single person: Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who will become the first trans member of Congress next year.

In statements to the media, Mace attacked McBride in personal terms, depicting her as a threat. "This is a biological man trying to force himself into women’s spaces, and I’m not going to tolerate it," Mace said. Asked if she planned to discuss her resolution with McBride, Mace responded, "No, Sarah McBride doesn’t get a say." 

On X, Mace engaged even harsher anti-trans rhetoric targeting McBride, describing her "an incoming Congressman who likes to wear mini skirts and wants to invade the privacy of women."

In other posts on X, Mace said that if anyone criticized her resolution, she would "call you out for putting women and girls in harm’s way." Mace also posted that "playing make believe dress up doesn't mean you should be allowed in women's private spaces" and called her critics "perverted."

She also reposted a mean-spirited attack from the notoriously bigoted Libs of TikTok account that mocked and misgendered McBride. 

Mace seems eager to make her resolution targeting McBride the central part of her political identity. Over the last two days, Mace has posted on X at least 130 times related to her bathroom resolution, and has reposted an additional nine posts. 

McBride characterized Mace's resolution as a distraction. “This is a blatant attempt from far right-wing extremists to distract from the fact that they have no real solutions to what Americans are facing,” McBride said. "We should be focused on bringing down the cost of housing, health care, and child care, not manufacturing culture wars. Delawareans sent me here to make the American dream more affordable and accessible and that’s what I’m focused on."

How will corporate America respond to bigotry in 2024?

Demonizing trans people has not always been a political winner.

In March 2016, when North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill (HB2) to ban trans people from using the bathrooms of their choice and prevent municipalities from enacting any anti-discrimination ordinances that were not already a part of the state’s laws, the nationwide backlash was swift and resounding.

PayPal, Adidas, Deutsche Bank, and CoStar (a commercial real estate data company) all pulled the plug on projects that would have brought billions of dollars and 1,500 jobs to North Carolina. The PayPal development alone would have injected $2.66 billion dollars into the state’s economy.

The companies cited HB2 as the reason for canceling their North Carolina plans. “The new law perpetuates discrimination and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture,” wrote Dan Schulman, PayPal’s then-president and CEO. “As a result, PayPal will not move forward with our planned expansion into Charlotte.”

At the time, dozens of other companies condemned the discriminatory law. Sixty-eight companies, including Microsoft, American Airlines, and Morgan Stanley, signed onto an amicus brief supporting the Department of Justice's attempt to overturn HB2.

Several events and concerts planned for the state were also canceled or moved to other states. Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam, and other artists canceled performances, taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue out of the state. The NBA moved its All-Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans, and the NCAA moved March Madness games to other states.

Lawmakers ultimately partially repealed the law in 2017, but the damage had been done. A year after HB2’s passage, the AP estimated that the backlash from the bill would cost the state more than $3.76 billion over the next dozen years in lost business.

The bill wasn’t just costly for North Carolina’s economy. It was expensive for the state’s GOP. Seven months after HB2 passed, Governor Pat McCrory (R) narrowly lost his reelection bid to then-Attorney General Roy Cooper (D), a Democrat who campaigned heavily on his opposition to the bill.

Popular Information contacted American Airlines, Nike, PayPal, Morgan Stanley, CoStar, Microsoft, Adidas, Deutsche Bank, the NBA, and the NCAA to comment on Mace's resolution. None of the organizations immediately responded.