1. Restarting a thread to articulate the point clearer - the president's allies on the right act as if he is somehow not responsible for his own attacks on transgender rights, and as if he's somehow not responsible for things the Trump Justice Department does...

2. ... or the State Department does or HHS does. They point to things he did in the past when he was a New Yorker, and various administration officials who are gay, as evidence of support. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

3. But more than four years have passed since Trump used LGBTQ people as a wedge against Muslims after the Pulse shooting in June 2016. In that time, he picked a deeply conservative running mate and has made appeals repeatedly to evangelicals https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

4. Those appeals to evangelicals have included repeated embraces of religious liberty initiatives that have been used as justification inside and outside the administration to attack LGBTQ rights https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

5. Officials in the administration don't point to domestic policy that Trump has been involved in, instead saying he accepted a SCOTUS ruling on marriage equality (an overwhelmingly popular issue in polls) that he can't control. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

6. And repeatedly, his conservative supporters who are gay point to things he's said personally, while averting their to the the actions of the administration he runs as if they are somehow separate from him https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

7. Then there is the specific targeting of transgender rights as a wedge to separate out the broader coalition. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/us/politics/trump-lgbtq-rights.html

8. Trump was quiet throughout Pride Month, which was filled with significant moments for the LGBTQ community. It is only now, 2 months before an election in which he is scrambling to find people to add to his column of voters, that the campaign has rolled out an LGBTQ coalition.