The White House has revealed that President Donald Trump believes authority over transgender questions belongs to the states, not the federal government, in a huge blow to the position of former President Barack Obama and lovers of centralized government everywhere.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer didn’t specifically discuss details of pending action but did say that “guidance” was coming, according to The Washington Times. He was responding to a question about whether Trump would reverse directions from Obama’s department of education that gave public school students the right to use restroom and locker facilities that matched their “sexual identity” rather than the sex they were born with.
“The president has maintained for a long time that this is a states’ rights issue and not one for the federal government,” Spicer said at Tuesday’s White House news briefing, according to BuzzFeed.
“So while we have further guidance coming out on this,” Spicer said, “I think that all you have to do is look at what the president’s view has been for a long time, that this is not something the federal government should be involved in, that this is a states’ rights issue.”
Given that Trump has long been on the record about considering the question to be an issue for states to decide, the announcement wasn’t a huge surprise.
However, it’s still a major step to take by the Trump administration. Even the admission of belief that something major should be dealt with by the states, instead of the federal government, is a major win for conservatives everywhere.
It’s a bedrock principle of federalism that the less the federal government does, the better. It’s about time that we have a president that recognizes the sovereignty of states to make determinations for themselves.
Hopefully, there will be action following this announcement, and the trend toward smaller government continues.
Source: ConservativeTribune