Matt Lauer

I keep losing track of Donald Trump’s various wars on media outlets, but I guess he’s okay with NBC this week, because he appeared on Thursday morning’s Today Show for an exclusive interview/town hall which is getting wide coverage, mostly because Trump answered some questions about LGBTQ issues and more specifically, the North Carolina “bathroom law.” North Carolina passed their own draconian “religious freedom” law last month, which basically entitles every anti-gay bigot the “right” to discriminate against LGBTQ people, and even more specifically, it says that trans individuals can only use the public bathrooms which correspond to the gender on their birth certificate. The whole thing is a clusterwhoops, and North Carolina is losing millions of dollars as major businesses and artists boycott the state. The GOP platform is basically that these kinds of “religious freedom” laws are great and every state should have them. But Trump disagreed, saying: “Well look North Carolina did something that was very strong and they’re paying a big price and there’s a lot of problems. And one of the best answers I heard was from a commentator yesterday saying, ‘Leave it the way it is right now, there have been very few problems, leave it the way it is.’ There have been very few complaints the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate, there has been so little trouble.” Today show co-host Matt Lauer then asked Trump, “Do you have any transgender people working in your organization?” “I don’t know, I really don’t know,” Trump told Lauer. “I probably do, I really don’t know.” “So if Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into Trump Tower and want to use the bathroom, you would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses?” Lauer asked. “That is correct,” Trump responded. [From E! News] Ted Cruz is already bashing Trump for his comments, but I have to think that Trump is already maneuvering into a general-election position, which… I don’t know, is actually pretty smart? I’m not saying I’m suddenly a Trump supporter, I’m just saying A) he’s smart to begin maneuvering his public positions to a more centrist platform and B) Trump’s words about the “bathroom issue” are actually not problematic at all. Of course, the Trump giveth and the Trump taketh away. No sooner did he say something relatively enlightened about LGBTQ people than he declared that taking Andrew Jackson off of the $20 bill was “pure political correctness.” Jackson is being replaced with Harriet Tubman, which is great and it’s what activists wanted. The original plan was to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill, but Lin-Manuel Miranda saved Hamilton for everybody. So now we’re getting $20 Tubman and Trump is acting as an apologist for Andrew Jackson… who engineered a genocide. Or as Trump said, “he was someone very important to this country.” Trump’s solution? Put Tubman on the $2 bill. Oh, Trump. Here’s the $20 bill part. And here’s the LGBTQ part. Photos courtesy of Pacific Coast News.