President Donald Trump falsely claimed that hospitals across the United States are performing “reverse surgery” on transgender people because he ordered them to do so.
“In fact, hospitals now are doing reverse surgery at my order,” Trump told supporters during an August 21 campaign rally at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center in South Carolina. “They’re doing reverse surgery. Nobody ever heard about it.”
There is no presidential order requiring hospitals to perform surgeries reversing gender transitions. Trump has instead taken several actions aimed at restricting access to gender-affirming health care, particularly for transgender youth.
Trump made the comments while campaigning for U.S. Sen. Darline Graham, who was facing Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s Republican Senate primary runoff.
Graham was appointed to the Senate following the death of her brother, longtime Sen. Lindsey Graham, in July. She went on to defeat Norman in the August 25 runoff and will face Democratic nominee Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, in November.
During the rally, Trump attacked Andrews as a “far-left political hack who supports transgender for everybody” and accused her of telling “confused children they’re trapped in the wrong body.”
Andrews has previously said she does not support gender-affirming surgery for people younger than 18 and instead supports evidence-based care decided between physicians, parents, and patients.
Adrian Shanker, who served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for health policy and senior adviser on LGBTQI+ health equity at the Department of Health and Human Services, criticized Trump’s comments.
“I don’t really know what President Trump means by reverse surgeries, but the reality is that he should leave medical decision-making up to the patient and their providers to discuss what medical care is right for a certain patient,” Shanker tells The Advocate. “These kinds of decisions really don’t have room for politicians in the middle of that conversation.”
Shanker calls Trump’s remarks a “wild statement” and said politicians should stay out of decisions made between patients and their health care providers.
“For the party of small government, maybe they would consider trying to leave people’s health care decisions alone,” Shanker says. “Trans people deserve access to the care that their bodies need, not the care that President Trump thinks that they need.”
Graham Faces Questions Over National Security Knowledge
Trump’s rally for Graham came just days after she faced criticism over her performance in a televised Republican debate against Norman.
During the debate, Graham was asked whether Taiwan and the South China Sea were national security issues for the United States. She acknowledged that foreign policy was not an area in which she was well informed.
“I’m just going to be honest here,” Graham says. “I’m not that informed on national security.”
“National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise,” she continued. “But I do support the military.”
Graham pointed to her family’s military background, noting that Lindsey Graham served in the Air Force for more than three decades and that their father served in the Army. She also described herself as someone who was not a “polished politician.”
Graham also incorrectly stated during the debate that South Carolina has a population of 50 million. The state has roughly 5.5 million residents.
Following the debate, Graham continued to argue that she was more focused on domestic concerns affecting South Carolinians than foreign policy issues.
“They’re worried about their pocketbooks more than they’re worried about the South China Sea, quite honestly,” Graham told reporters after the debate.
When Graham later appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, she sought to move past the national security controversy while turning attention toward transgender athletes.
“Of course, Taiwan is our friend,” Graham says. “But I think people in South Carolina are more worried about making ends meet. They are concerned about boys in girls’ sports.”
Trump continued that focus during his Myrtle Beach appearance, making transgender people a central part of his argument against Andrews.
Trump’s Orders Restrict Care, Not Require Surgery
Despite Trump’s claim, his administration has not issued an order directing hospitals to perform “reverse surgery.”
Trump’s January 2025 executive order targeting gender-affirming care directed federal agencies to restrict funding for institutions providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery to people younger than 19. It did not instruct hospitals to surgically reverse previous gender-affirming procedures.
The administration has also pursued restrictions on Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care and taken action against hospitals that provide such treatment.
Trump may have instead been referring to agreements involving Texas Children’s Hospital and Cleveland Clinic that provide services for people who voluntarily choose to detransition.
Texas Children’s Hospital reached a settlement that included establishing services for people who previously received gender-affirming treatment and later sought to detransition. Cleveland Clinic separately agreed to provide $2 million in services for people who received gender-affirming medical interventions before age 19 and later sought detransition-related care.
Those services can include hormonal treatment, surgical revision or reconstruction, fertility care and counseling.
Neither agreement requires anyone to detransition or undergo surgery, and neither amounts to a presidential order directing hospitals nationwide to perform “reverse surgery.”
Trump has previously made false claims about gender-affirming health care, including repeatedly claiming during the 2024 presidential campaign that children were going to school and returning home after receiving gender-affirming surgery.
Available research does not support claims that such surgeries are routinely performed on children. A study examining insurance claims covering nearly 23 million minors found no gender-affirming surgeries among transgender children ages 12 and younger. Among the 85 procedures identified among minors overall, 82 were chest-related.
While Trump’s administration has taken numerous steps to restrict gender-affirming health care, there is no evidence that he ordered hospitals to perform surgeries reversing transgender patients’ previous medical care.
