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President Donald Trump’s decision to rip Democrats as “crazy” during his State of the Union address on Tuesday — after they remained seated while he demanded a ban on socially transitioning minors without parental consent — drew sharply divided reactions from a live panel of voters.
The panel, assembled by polling group Maslansky & Partners, included 29 Democrats, 30 Independents and 40 Republicans. Their real-time reactions were displayed as colored lines on a graph, with higher values representing positive reactions and lower values indicating negative ones.
“But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” Trump said. “Who would believe that?… We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.”
As Trump delivered the remarks, the Republican line, shown in red, climbed sharply into positive territory. Independents, represented in yellow, also ticked upward, while Democrats, shown in blue, trended downward into negative territory.
The comments drew applause from Republicans in the chamber, but the president became incensed when he realized that Democrats refused to stand.
“Look, nobody stands up,” Trump said.
“These people are crazy. I’m telling you. They’re crazy,” Trump said, pointing his finger at Democratic senators and House members who remained seated.
Republican reactions stayed elevated during the remarks, while Democratic responses remained negative and independent voters held relatively steady.
Trump made the remarks as he called on Sage Blair, a Virginia teenager whose family filed a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Appomattox County High School staff socially transitioned her without parental knowledge.
According to a lawsuit filed by her family, Blair began identifying as male at school, where staff used male names and pronouns and allowed her to use male facilities without informing her parents.
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The family alleges the situation escalated after Blair ran away from home and later became a victim of sex trafficking, with the lawsuit alleging she was kidnapped and raped in multiple states.
Highlighting the case during his address, Trump said Blair was 14 when school officials sought to socially transition her “to a new gender,” treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents.
“But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full-ride scholarship to Liberty University. Sage and Michelle, please stand up,” Trump said as Republicans in the chamber cheered.
“Thank you for your great bravery,” he added.
The gender policy segment generated some of the strongest reactions of the night from the panel.
Among supporters, several comments focused on protecting children and parental involvement, including: “Protect children,” and “Parents should be informed.”
Opponents pushed back on the scope of the proposal, writing comments such as: “Every case is unique,” and “A total ban is not good.”
The issue appeared to trigger deeply personal reactions on both sides.
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