"I think I've done really very well with that community."

Trump Is Still Trying to Pass Himself Off as a Friend to the Gays

President Donald Trump is continuing to try to brand himself as an LGBTQ ally, in spite of his anti-LGBTQ record.

During the 2016 election, Trump claimed he would fight for the LGBTQ community, and told skeptics to “ask the gays” how they felt about him. He also held up a Pride flag with “LGBTs for Trump” written across it, and mentioned LGBTQ people in his RNC speech, in the context of fighting terrorism.

Since getting into office he has assailed LGBTQ rights, by working to ban transgender people from the military, pushing for employers to be able to fire or not hire someone for being LGBTQ, making cuts to HIV programs and shutting down promising research that was closing in on a cure, just to name a few steps the administration has taken.

When asked by the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson on Tuesday how he felt about his administration’s attempts “to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce,” he dodged the question, instead pointing to a recent controversial endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans.

“You know, I just got an award and an endorsement yesterday from the exact group, a group, you saw that,” Trump said. “They gave me the endorsement yesterday and I was very honored to—is it Log Cabin? The Log Cabin group, and I was very honored to receive it. No, I’ve done very well with that community. Some of my biggest supporters are of that community and I talk to them a lot about it. I think I’ve done really very well with that community.”

He also mentioned his friendship with Peter Thiel, the gay conservative entrepreneur, as proof of his connection to LGBTQ people.

REPORTER: Mr POTUS, your administration has been taking steps to make it easier to discriminate against LGBT people in the workforce. Are you okay with that? TRUMP: Well, the Log Cabin Republicans endorsed me… I've done very well w/ that community. Peter Thiel & so many others pic.twitter.com/W0OMKMzEkT — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 20, 2019

The Log Cabin Republicans have lost at least two members over the Trump endorsement: Robert Turner, the former head of the D.C. chapter, and board member Jennifer Horn.

The Log Cabin Republicans endorsed Trump in an op-ed in which the authors argued Trump was fighting to end HIV transmissions and praised an initiative to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide, despite the fact that Trump appeared not to know anything about it when asked.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted praise from Wayne Allyn Root, a conservative media personality and conspiracy theorist who has claimed former President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States and is gay.

While the majority of the Root quote Trump shared was criticizing “American Jews” for not supporting him, Root also claimed Trump was “good for all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone.” Trump thanked Root and added, “Wow.”

“Thank you to Wayne Allyn Root for the very nice words. “President Trump is the greatest President for Jews and for Israel in the history of the world, not just America, he is the best President for Israel in the history of the world…and the Jewish people in Israel love him…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019

…..all Jews, Blacks, Gays, everyone. And importantly, he’s good for everyone in America who wants a job.” Wow! @newsmax @foxandfriends @OANN — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 21, 2019