“There’s no denying the Trump campaign could use some help. Trump’s handling of the economy, coronavirus pandemic and ongoing civil unrest has hurt him badly in the polls, and public fear of infection has thwarted plans for his signature rallies, all of which has enabled Biden to rise almost untouched” Gabby Orr writes in Politico.

“But there is an enormous gulf inside Trump’s circle of campaign advisers and closest allies over whether, even at this fraught juncture, injecting transgender issues into the campaign is a potential key to victory or an act of self-destruction. A cohort of establishment Republicans, social libertarians and new GOP converts oppose the strategy. Among them are Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife, Ivanka. They point to a raft of evidence—from the volatile bathroom debate in North Carolina that lost the GOP the governor’s race in 2016 to a bitter Republican primary in Pennsylvania’s 2018 gubernatorial race—that pushing anti-LGBTQ issues is slowly destroying the Republican Party, one high-profile race at a time. Kushner, the de facto leader of Trump’s 2020 operation, and Ivanka have previously worked to kill anti-LGBTQ measures inside the White House. One of the president’s favorite officials, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany Ric Grenell, is a gay conservative who helped persuade Trump to use the power of American diplomacy to end the criminalization of homosexuality abroad.”