Last night, Caitlyn Jenner posted a video of herself using the women’s restroom at Trump Tower in New York.
In the one-minute clip posted to the reality star’s Facebook page, Jenner pretends to just stumble upon the Trump International Hotel just when she needs to pee. As Jenner explains to the camera, Trump said in an interview last week that she was welcome to use any bathroom in one of his buildings.
One inside the lobby, Jenner dramatically passes the men’s room, saying, “‘M,’ not anymore’” before entering the door marked “W.” When she emerges a second later, she remarks, “Thank you, Donald, I really appreciate it.
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“And by the way, Ted, nobody got molested.”
That last shot at Cruz is significant not only because he has been using the issue of transgender people using public restrooms in an attack ad against Trump but also because Jenner has previously indicated that she would support Cruz for president, despite his anti-LGBT views.
Speaking about North Carolina’s HB2 bill, which would force people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their birth gender, Trump told the Today show last week that he believes people should “use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate.” Matt Lauer asked him point blank if Caitlyn Jenner “were to walk into Trump Tower and wanted to use the bathroom he would be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses” Trump replied, “That is correct.”
It was those comments that caused Cruz to start running an ad that contains scary rhetorical questions like these: “Should a grown man pretending to be a woman be allowed to use the women’s restroom? The same restroom used by your daughter? Your wife? Donald Trump thinks so.”
This is the same man that Jenner singled out as her preferred presidential candidate in an interview with The Advocate last month.
“I like Ted Cruz. I think he’s very conservative and a great constitutionalist and a very articulate man,” she said. “I haven’t endorsed him or anything like that. But I also think, he’s an evangelical Christian, and probably one of the worst ones when it comes to trans issues.” Later, she said she would happily serve as his “trans ambassador.”
Now, with her new Facebook video, the most famous Republican trans woman in America has begun to shift her allegiance to Trump. This week, Jenner had a conversation with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof while standing outside of an all-gender restroom at Brooklyn’s Academy for Young Writers.
Jenner, who is registered to vote as Republican in California’s increasingly important June primary, said that Democrats are definitely better than the GOP on trans issues, but because she’s not a “one-issue voter” she still plans to vote for one of the Republican candidates. But this time, she indicated that she is open to voting for Trump, a man who was still referring to her as “Bruce” months after she came out as transgender.
“To be honest, Ted Cruz is kind of disappointing me lately, especially the way he’s dealing with our issue,” Jenner said.
That is perhaps putting it mildly about a candidate who had this to say to an Indiana crowd over the weekend, “Let me make things real simple: Even if Donald Trump dresses up as Hillary Clinton, he shouldn’t be using the girls’ restroom.”
Like many Republicans, Jenner appears caught between two bad options. What more do the Democrats have to do at this point to get her on their side?
