"Permanently Ban Sex Change, End This Lie": Trump Rages Against 'Wokeness'

Donald Trump has called on the United States Congress to 'permanently ban and criminalise sex change on children' as part of his battle to remove 'wokeness' - or the quality of being concerned about social injustice and discrimination - from civil society and in the military.

In a joint address late Tuesday (local time), he continued his tirade against sexual diversity in schools, the workplace, and in the armed forces, picking up from his "US will recognise only two genders" January remark and his demonisation on the campaign trail of transgenders and gender-affirming care for children.

"I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalising sex changes on children... and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie and our message to every child in America is, 'you are perfect exactly the way God made you'."

"Because we are getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military... and it's already out and it is out of our society. We don't want it. Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It's gone and we feel so much better for it, don't we. Don't we feel better?" Trump raged. "Our service members won't be activists and ideologues. They will be warriors. They will fight for our country."

READ | Gender, Free Speech, Eggs: What Trump Said In Congress Address

In a long and rambling to Congress Trump also declared he had "removed the poison of critical race theory" from public schools, referring to a critical framework that identifies racial bias as inherent in many parts of Western society, due to the fact that long-embedded differentiators in social, legal, and economic institutions in these countries can affect outcome by race.

READ | Trump Unfiltered Against "Wokeness, Left Lunatics" In Big Congress Comeback

Critical Race Theory, or CRT, has become a major flashpoint in the second Trump administration - schools in many states have already banned its teaching - because many of its critics fear it identifies and punishes all White people for being racial oppressors.

Academics, however, have pointed out CRT does not identify racism as the singular product of individual, or even groups, but rather that it is the moral responsibility of society today to address those wrongs.

Trump's speech contained several such eyebrow-raising and concerning proclamations, including a comment about ending the "tyranny" of programmes for diversity and inclusion.

Trump also spoke about the tariff war his administration has launched and referred to India in this connection. "Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades now. On an average, many nations... India, Mexico and Canada, they charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them."

READ | Trump's "Reciprocal Tariff On India" Note In Congress Speech

"This situation is not fair to the US. So from April 2, reciprocal tariffs kick in. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them," he said to loud cheers from Republican Congress members.

Experts have warned a tariff war could weigh on US growth and spur inflation.

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