President Trump's State Of The Union Comment Was Correct — These People ARE Crazy | Erika Sanzi

When President Trump said "these people are crazy" during his State of the Union address, many in the media and political commentariat seized on the line without explaining why he said it. The reason matters. 

The remark came directly after Trump told the story of Sage Blair, a 14-year-old whose school facilitated her social transition from girl to boy behind her grandmother’s back. Her father had died and her mother had been incarcerated, so her paternal grandmother was her legal guardian. School officials adopted a new name, new pronouns, and new accommodations for Sage and deliberately deceived her legal guardian about it. They were following school policy. 

This family, who has since filed a lawsuit against their school board, fell victim to a school gender policy that is pervasive nationwide. These policies allow children to adopt new identities at school, use restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex, and share sleeping quarters on field trips with the opposite sex. Yes, it’s that bad. 

U.S. President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24, 2026. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The Democratic Party has moved dramatically to the left on this issue of trans rights, shifting from equal rights to pseudoscience, ideology, and compelled speech. What was once framed as anti-bullying guidance has evolved into formal secrecy protocols that portray parents who object to "gender-affirming care" as dangerous bigots who must be kept out of the loop.

But these gender policies that exclude parents are extremely unpopular, even with Democratic voters. It’s an 80-20 issue and President Trump knows this. So, when he said, "Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy. I’m telling you. They’re crazy," he was right. It is crazy to signal to the world that it’s acceptable — morally superior even — for schools to socially transition minors without parental consent. If they had done the right thing and stood up, the only fallout would have been with the trans activists who continue to push their party to an unpalatable extreme. 

I often find Trump’s antagonistic tone tiresome and unnecessary, but in this particular case, I applauded his remarks because they are so spot on. These ubiquitous secrecy policies are morally repugnant and illegal. Any elected official who can’t say that is crazy. 

For years, Defending Education has documented school district policies across the country that explicitly instruct staff to socially transition students at school while keeping parents in the dark if the student requests it. At last count, 1,215 school districts representing 21,314 schools and over 12 million students are on our list. These are formal, written directives adopted by elected school boards and implemented by superintendents in both red and blue states. And they are pervasive.

U.S. President Donald Trump. (Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Most Americans have no idea how widespread these policies are. When they hear about them, many initially assume it can’t possibly be true. Surely the same schools that require parent permission to administer aspirin would not decide on and implement a psychosocial intervention for a child behind a parent’s back?

Wrong. 

And the policy language is often explicit: if a student asks to be treated as a different gender at school, staff are instructed to comply and to withhold that information from parents if the child does not consent to disclosure. In some districts, employees are warned that informing parents without student permission could lead to disciplinary consequences for violating school policy. One teacher told me, "I feel like I need to take an ethical shower every day when I get home from work."

There is no legal or moral justification for schools to cut parents out of profoundly consequential decisions for their own children, but it’s nearly impossible to find a single elected democrat who will say so. Instead, they decry parental involvement as "cruel."

That’s what the president was talking about. And that’s why the media spin misses the point entirely. Using the word "crazy" may offend the polite sensibilities, but as someone who has been speaking out about this issue for years — and been called way worse than "crazy" for it — I applaud the president for saying what we all know to be true. 

If elected officials from one party cannot even stand to affirm that parents — not schools — should control life-altering decisions about their own children, the problem isn’t the president’s rhetoric. It’s them.