Donald Trump sees tolerance of LGBT people as an “evolving process”–one in which America “obviously” eclipses Russia and a process in which he, too, is participating.
This he told MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts on the eve of the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, emphasizing that he was both “evolving” but still “for traditional marriage.”
While having addressed the controversy surrounding bringing the pageant to a country whose government persecutes gays and lesbians, Trump expanded on the topic with Roberts in an interview released Monday. Noting that “Russia wanted it really badly,” Trump explained that his team “didn’t really know this was such a controversy,” and when it came time to decide whether to stay in Russia, he turned to the LGBT members of his staff putting the show itself on.
The reaction? “We want to go and we want to show our stuff,” according to Trump, who added, “I like that attitude.” He praised Roberts himself as one of the members of the team that felt this way, adding that his reaction to Roberts being gay was “good, that’s great, have a good time.”
“It’s an evolving process,” Trump explained of gay rights, adding, “obviously the United States is far ahead of Russia in terms of what you’re talking about.” When questioned for his decision to host to program despite the controversy, Roberts previously explained that he felt it very important to get up from the sidelines and show his face in a more hostile environment in the hopes of sparking a dialogue, which was in line with the attitude of other Trump employees the real estate magnate praised.
Trump did not exclude himself from the evolutionary process: “I think I’m evolving and I think I’m a very fair person, but I have been for traditional marriage.” He added that he was not sure if President Obama was “fully evolved” on the same-sex marriage issue when Roberts asked him to identify his place on the evolutionary spectrum, instead adding that his stance was currently “a little bit in the middle.”
Trump also spoke of his opinion of Putin (“he has eaten our president’s lunch”) and, of course, Obamacare: “I have many, many websites all over… they’re great.” He cited the Obamacare website fiasco as a particularly debilitating issue for the President and the Democratic Party as a whole, given the astronomical price tag on the website and its litany of flaws.
Watch Trump’s take via Roberts’ MSNBC program below:
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.