Lil Nas X, BenDeLaCreme & More Mock Trump’s Trans Operations Claims at 2024 Presidential Debate

Former president Donald Trump said a lot of outlandish (and demonstrably untrue) things during his Tuesday night (Sept. 10) presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, from claiming people were aborting babies after they’re born to saying immigrants were eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

But one particular turn of phrase from Trump captured the internet’s attention. While attempting to paint his opponent as a radically left-wing candidate, the twice-impeached former president claimed that Vice President Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

Trump’s comments removed the context from Vice President Harris’ original comments, which came from an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire.

People quickly took to X during and after the debate, turning Trump’s comment into a rapidly spreading meme. Using the phrase “transgender operations on illegal aliens,” X users posted photos of American Dad‘s Roger the Alien in drag, Pleekly from Lilo & Stitch, E.T. wearing a dress, Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise in heels and plenty of other examples of queer-coded extraterrestrials to mock the former president’s comments.

Even a few artists joined in, with Lil Nas X joking about having a “transgender illegal alien gf and springfield ohio dog eating bf.” RuPaul’s Drag Race star BenDeLaCreme shared her shock at the comment itself, simply writing, “TRANSGENDER PRISONER OPERATIONS WHAT?!?”

Check out some of the celebrity reactions to the viral moment below: