Trump (Momentarily) Talks Education at M4L Summit

On Friday, 8/30/24, former President Donald J. Trump took part in an hourlong “fireside chat” with Moms for Liberty co-founder, Tiffany Justice, at their annual summit in Washington D.C.. He called Kamala Harris a “Marxist” and “a defective person.” He promised to fire all of America’s top, “woke” military officers. He spent a significant time talking about immigration, his recent trip to Arlington, “transgender” Olympic boxers, creating the TV show “The Apprentice,” Ivanka’s former line of shoes and his “spectacular” Bedminister property in New Jersey.

If you feel you must, you can watch the chat here.

This is what he had to say about education.

Immigration

In the midst of his 13-minute rant about immigration, Trump suggested that non-English speaking, immigrant children are displacing local children from their schools.

“But what’s happening to our country, our country is being poisoned, and your schools and your children suffering greatly because they’re going into the classrooms, they’re taking the seats, and they don’t even speak English. It’s crazy. We have our people that aren’t going into a classroom. We have students that were there last year. They’re not allowed into the school this year. They’re not allowed. It’s crazy.“

Comments at ~ 19 minutes

For the record, this is NOT happening anywhere. While there have been increased numbers of non-english speaking, immigrant children in some districts, those students are NOT displacing local students from their classrooms. President Trump might be referring to FALSE INFORMATION that spread through social media in January 2024, claiming a New York City high school was shut down to house migrants who had entered the U.S. illegally. The truth is, last January, in anticipation of an impending dangerous winter storm, nearly 2,000 migrants being housed in tents at an outdoor Brooklyn shelter were moved TEMPORARILY to a nearby high school for ONE NIGHT. All of the migrants left the school early the next morning, but classes were held remotely for ONE DAY to allow for cleanup and resumed in-person the following day.

“Transgenderism”

Trump repeated misinformation regarding the Algerian Olympic Women’s Boxing Gold Medalist during a 7 minute rant about transgender athletes in women’s sports, and added:

“…the transgender thing is incredible. When you think of it, your kid goes to school and comes home a few days later with an operation. The school decides what’s going to happen with your child. And many of these child’s, 15 years later, They say, What the hell happened? Who did this to me? They say, Who did this to me? It’s incredible.

Comment at ~47 minutes

For the record, there has NEVER been a case of a child who went to school and came “home a few days later with an operation.”

After more than 50 minutes, Justice, the co-founder of an organization purportedly focused on “parental rights,” asked “what do you plan to do at the federal level to help us to protect parental rights and education freedom like school choice?” Trump replied:

“Okay, so I like to say that we’re the party of common sense. I mean, we’re conservative and all of that. Walls of common sense, right? All of the things we’re talking about, no men in women’s sports, no gender operations. I mean, these operations, it’s crazy. I don’t know if you know, Europe has gotten totally away from it now. We’re way behind them. They don’t do it anymore. And this is just horrible. But who could even believe this is happening? So think of it. You have these parents that end up in fist fights at school meetings, and the parents mean well. They end up getting arrested, put in prison. I’ve seen things, especially Loudoun County, right? Loudoun County, it’s a hotbed. Anybody from Loudoun? I have the property. I have the big great golf course there right on the… Actually, I offered… you had the head of one of your groups that was very impressive to me. And I said, anytime you want to use my land along the Potomac River, right under the American flag. I mean, I have sort ofan unlimited capacity. There’s a… it’s a lot of acres, and it’s miles along the Potomac. It’s truly beautiful.

But, you know, I’m for parental rights all the way. I don’t even understand the concept of not being… When you see some of the things that they want people to do in these school boards, and they become like a dictatorships… And the parents are screaming for the life of their child, a lot having to do with transgender, a lot having to do with alot of other things. You’ve got to give the parents… The parents truly love the kids, okay? Some of these people on the boards, I think they don’t like the kids very much what they’re doing. So you have to give the rights back to the parents. And I can’t imagine it. Well, okay, this administration has been the opposite. This administration, It’s like the FBI goes after these people. It’s some kind of an insurrection. It’s crazy.“

Comment at ~57 minutes

When Justice said “They called us domestic terrorists, President Trump. Can you believe it? For speaking out at school board meetings.” Trump promised to change that “on day one.”

For the record, contrary to conservative media sources, Attorney General Merrick Garland never called concerned parents “Domestic Terrorists,” nor did the FBI. The DOJ did announce intentions to investigate the increasing threats against school board members during the summer of 2021 and that the FBI would look into a spike in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members across the country.  The Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit human rights organization, has labeled M4L as a “far-right extremist organization” and an “anti-government organization” with ties to other groups that the SPLC has designated as hate or extremist groups (for example, the Proud Boys). The label “domestic terrorists” appears to come from a letter to President Biden by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) which argued, in September 2021, that some violent threats against school officials “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism” that would warrant the intervention of federal law enforcement. The NSBA has since apologized for that letter.

Justice ended the “fireside chat” by reminding President Trump that “Moms for Liberty is “a non-partisan nonprofit organization and we only endorse the school board races.” But she added that she, personally, was endorsing him for President of the United States. And then they danced to The Village People’s “Y.M.C.A.”

My favorite part of the interview was when (at ~53 minutes) Justice asked Trump to tell her Moms for Liberty audience some advice about running for office. Trump’s advice: “Don’t do it,” which is great advice for any M4L member considering a run for school board. I couldn’t agree more.