Donald Trump has a pretty long track record of saying awful, bigoted things about large groups of people.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.
First, it was Mexican immigrants, who he labeled "drug dealers" and "rapists."
Latino activists protest Donald Trump. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.
Then, it was Muslims, who he declared should be banned from entering the United States.
Photo by Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images.
So when "The Today Show" asked him about North Carolina's "bathroom law" that forces trans people to use the restroom that corresponds to the sex listed on their birth certificate, I braced myself for the worst.
The anticipated aftermath of Trump's answer. Photo by Steve Bunk/USDA.
Then he said this:
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"North Carolina did something that was very strong, and they're paying a big price, and there's a lot of problems. And I heard — one of the best answers I heard — was from a commentator yesterday, saying, 'Leave it the way it is. Right now. There have been very few problems. Leave it the way it is.' North Carolina, what they're going through, with all the business that's leaving and all of the strife — and it's on both sides — you leave it the way it is. There have been very few complaints, the way it is. People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. There has been so little trouble."
Matt Lauer proceeded to ask him if he would be OK with Caitlyn Jenner using "any bathroom she chooses" at Trump Tower.
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"That is correct," Trump said.
It certainly seems like — and I can't believe I'm about to say this — Trump is ... right?
Protestors outside a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.
North Carolina's law is indeed pretty irremediably bad to say the least. A devastating Daily Beast report found that calls to a local suicide hotline for trans teenagers doubled after the law's passage. Businesses across the U.S. have pretty much universally condemned it, and some have even pulled jobs out of the state.
Just this week, the U.K. issued a travel warning, cautioning its LGBT citizens about visiting North Carolina and Mississippi, which passed a similar law on April 5.
But let's ... not be too hasty about giving Trump too much credit here.
His odd focus on why the law is bad for business, rather than — you know — people, is a pretty cop-out-y (though certainly on-brand) reason to oppose it.
He also went on to say that he saw no need to create new gender-neutral bathrooms.
And of course, one moment of relative humanity doesn't come close to negating all of the other terrible, destructive things he's said over the course of his campaign (take your pick).
However, his comments should put those who defend the law on notice.
Because if even this guy...
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.
...a guy who has spent the last nine-or-so months spewing nonsense on policy while unleashing a steady stream of bigotry against pretty much everyone under the sun is opposed to it — and not even for a particularly good reason, but a reason nonetheless — then it really is an indefensibly terrible, no good, horrible, very bad law.
And it's time for North Carolina's HB2 to go.
UPDATE — 4/22/16: A few hours after his appearance on "Today," Trump told Sean Hannity that, while maintaining that he doesn't agree with the law, he believes that North Carolina had the right to pass it.
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