WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms.
\nIn a \u201cfireside chat\u201d in the nation\u2019s capital, the former president sought to shore up support and enthusiasm among a major part of his base. The bulk of the group\u2019s 130,000-plus members are conservatives who agree with him that parents should have more say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations don\u2019t belong in schools.
\nYet Trump also runs the risk of alienating some moderate voters, many of whom see Moms for Liberty\u2019s activism as too extreme to be legitimized by a presidential nominee.
\nA year ago, Moms for Liberty was viewed by many as a rising power player in conservative politics that could be pivotal in supporting the Republican ticket. The group\u2019s membership skyrocketed after its launch in 2021, fueled by parents protesting mandatory masking for students and remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
\nBut in the last several months, a series of embarrassing scandals and underwhelming performances during local elections have called Moms for Liberty\u2019s influence into question.
\nThe group also has voiced support for Project 2025, a detailed and controversial playbook for the next conservative presidency from which Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself.
\nMoms for Liberty serves on the advisory board for Project 2025, and the author of the document\u2019s education chapter taught a \u201cstrategy session\u201d at the group\u2019s Friday gathering.
\nThe negative perceptions about Moms for Liberty around the country could increase the potential liability for Trump as he sits down with co-founder Tiffany Justice on Friday evening, said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett.
\n\u201cIt certainly helps him rally his base,\u201d Jewett said. \u201cBut will that be enough to outdo the backlash?\u201d
\nJustice said she wanted to ask Trump about \u201cwhat was important in his kids\u2019 lives and his kids\u2019 education.\u201d
\n\u201cI think the fascinating thing about Donald Trump is that he\u2019s a father and a grandfather, but he\u2019s involved his children in business and in politics with him,\u201d she said. \u201cThey have a very strong family. And so I think we\u2019ll enjoy hearing more about that from him tonight.\u201d
\nJustice disputed the idea that her group\u2019s influence is waning, pointing to the 60 percent of Moms for Liberty-backed candidates who won their recent races in the Florida primaries.
\nThat\u2019s \u201ca really big deal,\u201d she said, especially considering that many of the school board hopefuls the group endorses are first-time candidates running against incumbents. She also noted three Moms for Liberty members who won Florida House primaries, showing the group\u2019s reach into other political offices.
\nThe group, which as a nonprofit is officially nonpartisan, said it also invited both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, who recently suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump, to speak at the gathering. Neither is scheduled to make an appearance.
\nTrump didn\u2019t share details of what he would discuss at the gathering, but his campaign pointed to his education proposals, which include promoting school choice, giving parents more say in education and awarding funding preference to states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure, financially reward good teachers and allow parents to directly elect school principals.
\nHe also has called for terminating the Department of Education, barring transgender athletes from playing in girls\u2019 sports, and cutting funding from any schools pushing \u201cinappropriate racial, sexual or political content.\u201d
\n\u201cPresident Trump believes students should be taught reading, writing and math in the classroom \u2014 not gender, sex and race like the Biden Administration is pushing on our public school system,\u201d said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign\u2019s national press secretary.
\nThe event took on a party-like atmosphere as the group awaited Trump\u2019s arrival to a hotel ballroom in Washington. Donning shirts with messages like \u201cMoms for Trump\u201d and \u201cWe don\u2019t co-parent with the government,\u201d attendees at the group\u2019s annual gathering ate buffet desserts, drank beer and cheered to a cover band playing country hits.
\nTrump entered the ballroom as he does at his signature rallies, standing onstage and soaking up applause for the entirety of Lee Greenwood\u2019s \u201cGod Bless the USA.\u201d Despite the event\u2019s focus on education, Trump began by discussing illegal immigration, an issue he\u2019s put at the center of his campaign.
\n\u201cMany of these people are coming out of the roughest countries in the world, and they\u2019re coming from all over the world, they\u2019re not just coming from South America,\u201d Trump said.
\nVice President Harris has criticized her Republican opponent for his threats to dismantle the Department of Education. She also has spoken out against efforts to restrict classroom content related to race.
\nDemocrats have lauded her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, for an executive order he signed protecting the rights of LGBTQ people to receive gender-affirming health care in his state. Republicans, including Trump, have lambasted him for it.
\nDuring a campaign stop earlier Friday in Johnstown in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Trump offered extensive criticism of the media for what he called unfavorable coverage and singled out CNN for its interview with Harris and Walz on Thursday.
\nMoments later, a man rushed the media area and made it over a bike rack barrier and close to a riser where television reporters were watching the rally. Private security pushed him back, and the man was eventually subdued by law enforcement using a Taser.
\nTrump at first said of the man, \u201che\u2019s on our side,\u201d but it\u2019s not clear what his intent was. As police led the man away, the former president declared, \u201cIs there anywhere that\u2019s more fun to be than a Trump rally?\u201d
\nJohnstown was once a steel-producing hub but has seen its factories close over the decades. In his speech, Trump vowed to restore American manufacturing by imposing steep tariffs on goods from China and other foreign countries. He also used energy-rich Pennsylvania as a backdrop to deride Harris for once suggesting she\u2019d be willing to ban hydraulic fracturing \u2014 a position her campaign says she no longer supports.
\nThe former president said he was \u201cexposing how bad it\u2019s going to be in Pennsylvania and our country if we stop doing the fossil fuel thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump appeared Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms. In a \u201cfireside chat\u201d in the nation\u2019s capital, the former president sought to shore up support and enthusiasm among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428314,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-428306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n