President Donald Trump falsely claimed that only transgender people qualified for government funds under the 2022 bipartisan CHIPS Act, which was aimed at boosting domestic semiconductor manufacturing after global chip production came to be dominated by countries such as Taiwan, South Korea and other parts of Asia:
Trump on the CHIPS Act: "If you weren't transgender, you didn't qualify. So they'd get the money, they'd look all over for transgender people to run the company." pic.twitter.com/tSl6T3n2JN
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 15, 2026
We had this ridiculous CHIPS Act where you’d give billions of dollars to a company and they didn’t even know what the hell to do with it. And of course, the standards were so high. If you weren’t transgender, as an example, you didn’t qualify. So they’d get the money, they’d hire, they’d look all over for transgender people to run the company. They couldn’t find them.
Trump was mocked on X for his insane statement:
The lies are getting dumber https://t.co/lsn008Rci4
— James Singer (@Jemsinger) July 15, 2026
The CHIPS Act funds the production of chips using leading-edge **transistors**
— Melanie D'Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) July 15, 2026
And now you can probably figure out why he thinks these companies needed transgender people to qualify.
We are truly living in the dumbest of times. https://t.co/p5aIBRoKyq
Not just false, but utterly bizarre. https://t.co/7YuWID5his
— Scott Greenfield (@ScottGreenfield) July 15, 2026
(Source: X)