SUFFERN, New York (LifeSiteNews) — President Donald Trump again touted his use of the Village People’s “YMCA” at rallies as part of his appeal to “the gay vote,” joking that his dancing to the tune continues to irk First Lady Melania Trump.
Speaking at a rally with Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler of New York and New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, Trump relayed a recent conversation with his wife.
“(S)he says, ‘Darling, please, you speak so beautifully, would you do me a favor? Don’t do the swimming story. Don’t do the weightlifting story. It’s so damn unpresidential. And also, darling, when you’re leaving, and they have that song, gay national anthem,’” Trump said. “That’s why I did so well with the gay vote, I think, because of that song,” he said. “I did great with the gay vote, better than any Republican’s ever done by far, but my wife, first lady, very elegant woman.”
Trump says he thinks he did well with the gay vote because he plays YMCA at his rallies and calls it the “gay national anthem” 😂 pic.twitter.com/MbA9whFLg3
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 22, 2026
Trump previously made the claim in March during an interview with Fox News’ afternoon roundtable show The Five, during which an exchange about the whereabouts of Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (who has been rumored to be gay) and the treatment of homosexuals in Islamist societies transitioned to Trump’s own standing with gay voters.
“Now, I think, you know, I did very well with the gay vote, OK? I even played the ‘gay national anthem’ as my walk-off,” the president said. “And I think it probably helped me, but I did great — no Republican has ever gotten the gay vote like I did, and I’m very proud of it, I think it’s great. Perhaps it’s because I’m from New York City, I don’t know. But the ‘gay national anthem’ was my walk-off and I think it probably — but think, gays for Palestine, but they kill gays in Palestine. So when they hear that I think probably we can talk about them and it shouldn’t be too hard.”
LGBT media outlets were quick to dispute Trump’s claimed popularity, citing exit polls from the 2024 election finding that just 13% of self-described “gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender” voters chose Trump over Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris. But while the Democrat nominee’s aggressive support for the full range of the current LGBT agenda won Harris the overwhelming majority of LGBT support (while alienating the swing vote), it is true that Trump is closer to “the gay vote” than the average conservative Republican.
As a liberal celebrity businessman in his life before politics, Trump has a mixed record on LGBT issues. In 2012, as the owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, he repeatedly endorsed the inclusion of “transgender women,” i.e. men, in competition with actual women, in the name of what the Trump organization called “modernized” rules at the time, eliciting praise from LGBT pressure group GLAAD.
While running for president in 2016, Trump criticized a North Carolina law banning male students from female restrooms and said anyone should be allowed to “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate.” By the time he was in office, he flipped on the issue, rejecting Obama-era guidelines on the subject and announcing that the Department of Education would no longer indulge bathroom-related “discrimination” complaints.
A consistent supporter of same-sex “marriage,” Trump nominated a variety of pro-LGBT officials to government posts and judicial vacancies and continued an Obama-era executive order on “gender identity nondiscrimination” and U.S. support for international recognition of homosexual relations at the United Nations Human Rights Council. His campaign actively courted LGBT-identifying voters with rainbow merchandise. Over the years, he has also allowed his Mar-a-Lago residence to be used for same-sex “weddings” and Log Cabin Republican fundraisers.
On the other hand, Trump’s first term prioritized religious liberty and was generally aligned with social conservatives against the gender-fluidity movement, from banning gender-confused soldiers from the military to protecting women from having to share close quarters such as homeless shelters with men claiming to be transgendered. His White House also opposed the so-called “Equality Act” and maintained a biological definition of sex in its implementation of federal laws and regulations.
Since returning to office, Trump has been a consistent ally of social conservatives on gender issues. He has taken multiple executive actions to reverse the Biden administration’s transgender policies, including an order that ends all federal support for “transition” procedures on minors, rescinds or amends all of the Biden health bureaucracy’s past endorsements of underage “transitioning,” and calls for a review of the medical literature on the subject, enforcing all existing restrictions on underage “transitioning,” and taking regulatory action to “end” the practice to the greatest extent possible under current law.
Another order prohibits males who claim to be female from competing against actual women in sex-specific athletic programs at schools receiving government funding. A third disqualifies gender-confused individuals from military service and prohibits military health services from conducting “transition” treatments and procedures.