Throughout former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, several different outlets have claimed he supports marriage equality. One Newsweek column by Brad Polumbo from July of this year states, “Trump made history as the first president to take office accepting gay marriage,” and a separate PolitiFact fact check claims that “Trump and Biden had evolved on the issue of marriage equality before arriving at a similar stance that supports gay rights.” However, the article gives no indication that Trump has shifted his views on marriage equality since 2016, referencing past interviews in which he opposed marriage rights for same-sex couples.
LGBTQ Nation evaluated the claim for its truthfulness. The Trump-Vance campaign was reached out to for comment; however, they did not respond before publication.
Trump’s past statements on marriage equality
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From 2000 to 2016, Trump publicly opposed same-sex marriage.
“I’m probably as conservative as anybody on your show, and that’s going a pretty strong step. I’m Republican, a very conservative Republican. I believe strongly in just about all conservative principles, just about…. I’m not in favor of gay marriage…. No. I’m just not in favor of gay marriage,” he said to Fox News in 2011.
“I just don’t feel good about it,” Trump told Bill O’Reilly in 2011. “I don’t feel right about it. I’m against it, and I take a lot of heat because I come from New York. You know, for New York it’s like, how can you be against gay marriage? But I’m opposed to gay marriage.”
In 2011, he also said to the Des Moines Register, “They should not be able to marry.” He was then asked if gay people should have the same marriage benefits as straight people, to which he said that his “attitude on it has not been fully formed.” After a moment, Trump said on marriage and civil benefits, “As of this moment, I would say no and no.”
“I’m just for traditional marriage,” he told CNN in 2015.
Additionally, during the 2016 election, PolitiFact rated gay former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s (D-NY) statement that Trump is against same-sex marriage as “true.” At around this time, he stated that he would “strongly consider” appointing conservative Supreme Court Justices who oppose same-sex marriage and would try to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that legalized gay marriage. “If I’m elected, I would be very strong on putting certain judges on the bench that I think maybe could change things,” Trump told Fox News. “I don’t like the way they ruled. I disagree with the Supreme Court from the standpoint they should have given the state — it should be a states’ rights issue.”
However, he congratulated Elton John on his civil partnership in 2005, making it feasible that he believed in civil partnerships over marriage equality.
Shortly after he was elected in 2016, The Economist wrote of an interview he did with 60 Minutes: “Trump told Ms. Stahl that his personal views on same-sex marriage are ‘irrelevant’ because the issue is ‘already settled’ by Obergefell. ‘It’s law. It was settled in the Supreme Court,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘I mean it’s done.’ And not to be mistaken, Mr. Trump has left behind his campaign-trail paeans to ‘traditional marriage’ and the wish that same-sex nuptials be determined state by state. The law is settled, he said, ‘and I’m fine with that.’”
Trump’s actions as president
Since his election in 2016, Trump has not spoken directly about same-sex marriage. Instead, surrogates have at times said that he’s in favor of gay marriage. Kellyanne Conway, his former counselor, was quoted in 2019 as saying, “He’s the first president to start as president for approving of gay marriage.” This occurred in 2019 and 2020, especially with his “Trump Pride” campaign. This campaign featured no direct acknowledgment from Trump; however, it featured a website that said he supports marriage equality. “Trump Pride is a diverse coalition dedicated to re-electing President Trump, the first president to begin his presidency in support of marriage equality,” it said.
Advocates criticized this era of the Trump administration for attempting to win LGBTQ+ votes while opposing LGBTQ+ equality, including restrictions on people with HIV entering the military, restrictions on LGBTQ+ health policies, and anti-trans policies in the country. However, gay Republicans say Trump is among the most pro-LGBTQ+ presidents in history, who themselves have been fact-checked by the Washington Post, who rated this claim “four Pinnochios” for being extremely misleading and mostly false. The Washington Post concluded that Trump backed numerous anti-gay policies and that his administration was generally anti-gay.
He specifically opposed policies to recognize same-sex marriages as equal to opposite-sex marriages while he was in the White House. He asked federal courts – including the Supreme Court – to make it legal to treat same-sex couples worse than opposite-sex married couples. His administration refused to recognize same-sex marriages for the purposes of U.S. citizenship for children born abroad as it recognized opposite-sex marriages.
Nevertheless, since 2016 Trump has made no public statements about marriage equality.
Trump’s current campaign and Project 2025
Project 2025 is the far-right plan by the Heritage Foundation to implement socially conservative policies in the U.S. from the federal level. This includes a push for policies that will help overturn marriage equality in the United States, as well as pushing Supreme Court justices to overturn it as well.
Project 2025 says that children raised in homes with “heterosexual, intact marriage” fare better than “all other family forms” and that same-sex marriages are unstable. It says that the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage at the federal level, “redefine[d] marriage to be the union between any two individuals.”
It also says that the Department of Health and Human Services should promote heterosexual marriages that consist of “a married mother, father, and their children” in a paragraph that denounces the “LGBTQ+ equality” of President Joe Biden’s HHS policies.
“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump wrote in a post on his right-wing social media platform Truth Social. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Trump has instead backed his Agenda 47 plan, which contains much of the same policies as Project 2025, but softens up on social issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. There is no mention of a stance on marriage equality in Agenda 47.
The distance of Trump to Project 2025 and the disparities between the conservative plan and Article 47 are smaller than they may initially appear, however. The RNC’s platform policy director, Russ Vough, actively contributed to Project 2025’s development.
His VP pick, J.D. Vance, wrote a foreword to a book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, which is explicitly about Project 2025. Vance wrote positively of the book, calling the ideas within “an essential weapon.” Other Trump officials were found to have created a strange training video for federal employees seeking to implement Project 2025, and at least 140 officials who worked for Trump have contributed to Project 2025.
Additionally, a video from 2022 shows Trump at a Heritage Foundation dinner when the group was working on Project 2025. He called Heritage a “great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.” Additionally, there are many similarities between Agenda 47 and Project 2025 in regards to transgender issues.
In short, it is unlikely that Trump does not know about Project 2025. It is unclear to what degree his policies are directly influenced by Project 2025, but some believe that he is using Agenda 47’s more moderate language to appeal to swing voters while still aiming to implement Project 2025. However, this is only speculation, and there is no direct evidence for this. Nevertheless, there are definite ties between the agenda and both his administration and campaign.
LGBTQ+ equality advocates believe he still opposes same-sex marriage
LGBTQ Nation asked GLAAD and the Human Rights Campaign whether Trump supports marriage equality. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement:
Donald Trump’s anti-LGBTQ record is clear and comprehensive. Trump is backed by anti-LGBTQ groups including Heritage Foundation, whose Project 2025 takes direct aim at LGBTQ people. He has nominated anti-LGBTQ Supreme Court justices who went on to overturn Roe and write harmful decisions including 303 Creative, a phony case brought by the anti-LGBTQ extremist legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, the same group that created another failed case to eliminate abortion medication.
Anyone claiming to know where Trump stands on issues important to LGBTQ people should look first to where he stands – with anti-LGBTQ extremists who are fighting a losing battle against rising acceptance for LGBTQ people and our marriages. A supermajority of Americans support LGBTQ people and our freedoms to be ourselves and free from discrimination.
Human Rights Campaign National Press Secretary Brandon Wolf said in an email:
Donald Trump has not been shy: he opposes LGBTQ+ rights and would not hesitate to upend marriage equality if he thought it would score him political points. As a 2016 candidate, Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court for the ruling that legalized same-sex marriages and said he would “strongly consider” nominating future justices who oppose marriage equality.
As President, Trump led an administration that refused to sign a statement in support of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ ruling on marriage equality and hired former Florida Attorney General and infamous opponent to marriage equality Pam Bondi to defend him in his first impeachment trial. And his Project 2025 agenda calls for a US government that promotes heterosexuality above all other communities. Don’t let the MAGA propaganda machine fool you: Donald Trump is no friend to LGBTQ+ people would light our rights ablaze in service to his own ambition.
Considering the evidence, it appears likely that former President Donald Trump is opposed to marriage equality. While there have been conflicting accounts since 2016 from his staff and supporters, direct evidence from what he has said and policies he has enacted, along with people he has appointed, suggests that he is opposed to marriage equality. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that Trump has ties to Project 2025, although he has publicly distanced himself from the agenda.
LGBTQ Nation rates this claim as false – Trump most likely does not support marriage equality.
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