Apparently Donald Trump Doesn’t Like the Term ‘Woke’ Now

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Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Westside Conservative Breakfast on Thursday in Urbandale, Iowa.

Former President Donald Trump spoke at the Westside Conservative Breakfast on Thursday in Urbandale, Iowa.

Former President Donald Trump told a Republican audience in Iowa on Thursday that while he opposes progressive ideas about transgender rights, he doesn’t want to use the term woke to describe them, because so few people know what What does this mean.

Speaking at the Westside Conservative Club in Urbandale, Iowa, Trump described his disgust at letting children with gender dysphoria identify as another sex, declaring that the country is sick.

And I don’t like the term woke, because I heard woke, woke woke, said the 2024 GOP presidential candidate. You know, it’s just like a term that half the people can’t define it. They don’t know what it is.

Trump is not the first person to point out the vague meaning of the terms woke or wokeness. Some centrists use it to describe a particular type of social justice ideology that they believe is too quick to describe dissenting views as racist, sexist or transphobic.

But conservatives often describe any liberal idea or policy they don’t like as woke, leading progressives to dismiss it as a dog-whistle term for racial justice or other ideals.

It’s unclear if Trump plans to abandon the word woke for good or if he’s just engaging in a spur-of-the-moment riff. This Sunday, he described Disney as a Woke and Disgusting shadow of its former self on his social media platform Truth Social.

But the comments could also be a subtle jab at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trumps leading rival for the GOP presidential nomination. The governor usually refers to his right-wing culture war as a crusade against awakening. DeSantis, who restricts discussions of gender and gender identity in school classrooms, proudly describes Florida as the state where the woke die.

Trump has toed the conservative line on transgender rights, peppering his speeches with jokes about transgender women participating in women’s sports.

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But his effort to distinguish himself from DeSantis rhetorically may be part of a larger strategy to avoid pandering to a niche corner of the online right.

Trump criticized DeSantis for failing to prevail in his long-running battle with Disney, which DeSantis sought to punish for opposing his bills restricting discussion of sex and gender issues in the classroom. And Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., disappointed some conservative activists when he spoke out against the movement to boycott Bud Light after the brand hired Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman, as a spokesperson in several advertisements.

People say, You’re conservative, Trump said Thursday. Yes, I am conservative. But more important is: I am a person with common sense.

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