Trump Claims Hospitals Are Doing “Reverse Surgery” on Trans People
The president said the procedures were being carried out "at my order," but offered no explanation for the bizarre claim.
President Donald Trump falsely claimed on Friday that American hospitals are performing “reverse surgery” on transgender people at his direction.
“[H]ospitals now are doing reverse surgery at my order,” Trump told supporters during an August 21 rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Darline Graham at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in South Carolina. “They’re doing reverse surgery. Nobody ever heard about it.”
It is unclear what Trump meant. Upon taking office last year, he issued an executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used to cover gender-affirming treatments for people under age 19.
To carry out that order, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed rules that would bar Medicaid from covering gender-affirming treatments and could strip federal funding from hospitals or clinics that provide such care to minors with gender dysphoria.
Trump may have been referring to a settlement that required Texas Children’s Hospital to open a “detransition clinic.” The agreement resolved a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleging that the hospital had provided gender-affirming care to minors in violation of state law and improperly billed Texas Medicaid for transition-related treatments using false diagnosis codes. Paxton’s office led the effort, with the U.S. Department of Justice helping negotiate the settlement.
The Cleveland Clinic reached a similar agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in June, LGBTQ Nation reported. Under the agreement, the clinic pledged $2 million toward care for detransitioners, although it already offered services for people seeking to reverse the effects of hormonal or surgical transition-related treatments. Those services include hormone therapy, surgical reconstruction, fertility restoration, and psychological care.
Trump has made similar false claims before, including that, under the Biden administration, children were going to school and coming home having medically transitioned. That assertion was immediately fact-checked as false. Trump’s defenders argued that he was speaking hyperbolically about schools — especially in Democratic-led states — that they accuse of indoctrinating or encouraging children to embrace transgender or nonbinary identities.
Adrian Shanker, a former deputy assistant secretary for health policy and senior adviser on LGBTQI+ health equity at the Department of Health and Human Services, told The Advocate that Trump’s seemingly confused ramblings — which incorporate “buzzwords” meant to inflame anti-transgender animus — demonstrate why politicians should not interfere in people’s personal medical decisions.
“I don’t really know what President Trump means by reverse surgeries, but the reality is that he should leave medical decision-making up to the patient and their providers to discuss what medical care is right for a certain patient,” Shanker told the magazine.
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