At his March 2025 address to Congress, President Trump went viral for yet another whopper: mocking U.S. government research, claiming we’re spending millions to make mice “gay” or “transgender.” The crowd laughed. Headlines followed. MAGA social feeds exploded. And just last week, Fox News host Jesse Watters repeated the same BS nonsense.
And somewhere in a lab, a geneticist — who’s spent 15 years studying cancer, heart disease, or alzheimer's— quietly closed their laptop.
Let’s set the record straight.
Trump confused the term “transgenic” — as in transgenic mice — with “transgender.” One is a cornerstone of modern biomedical research. The other is a deliberate MAGA distraction designed to stoke fear, gin up outrage, and burn down anything that doesn’t fit the culture war playbook.
🧬 So what is a transgenic mouse?
It’s a mouse with targeted genetic modifications — either to introduce or knock out specific genes — so we can study everything from brain development to tumor growth to Alzheimer’s treatments. These mice have been used to:
– Model human diseases like sickle-cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and diabetes
– Test therapies for cancer, HIV, and infertility
– Understand the role of specific genes in memory, immunity, and organ development
– Track cell fate and developmental biology
– Improve drug safety and hormone therapies
– Create tissue-specific cancer models to test life-saving treatments
They’ve helped create vaccines. Led to targeted cancer drugs. Transgenic mice are the foundation of countless medical breakthroughs.
But instead of funding that work, this administration is mocking it.
The real tragedy?
🔬 While they were laughing about “gay mice,” scientists were publishing data that could one day reverse Parkinson’s.
📉 While MAGA influencers made memes, research labs watched their NIH funding collapse.
⚰️ And while culture warriors got clicks, millions of patients lost hope as programs were cut, grants were frozen, and life-saving studies were shuttered midstream.
This isn’t fiscal responsibility. This is calculated cruelty.
This is what happens when political theater replaces public service. When bad-faith actors confuse a genome with a gender. When research becomes punchline.
So no — the U.S. government didn’t “make mice gay.”
But under this administration, science has been twisted into a cheap joke — while real patients wait for cures, real labs go dark, and real lives hang in the balance.
If we don’t stand up for facts, for funding, and for the future of medical research, we’re not just losing time — we’re losing lives. It’s time to stop the sabotage and start leading again.
— Dave Karson
Candidate for U.S. Congress, CA-41
Luchando por la familia, la justicia, la dignidad y el respeto.
www.karsonforcongress.com
#KarsonForCongress #ScienceMatters #LeadershipNotLies #TransgenicNotTransphobic #DefendNIH #SaveResearch #CA41 #FactsFirst #TransgenicTruth #HealthcareForAll #DOGEIsADisaster