A rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump made a disparaging remarking about U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, a Democratic state representative from Texas, circulated online in March 2026.
Users on social media platforms such as X (archived) and Facebook (archived) claimed Trump called Talarico's beliefs, which include support for transgender Americans, an "insult to Jesus."
The alleged quote spread online in the wake of Talarico's victory in the Texas Democratic primary on March 3.
The quote was correctly attributed to Trump.
Trump first made the statement when he appeared as a call-in guest on Fox News' "The Brian Kilmeade Show" on March 13.
The interview was available to watch on Kilmeade's YouTube page, with the relevant segment beginning at the 29:13 mark. The full episode also was available as a podcast.
Trump made the comment after Kilmeade asked him about Texas Republicans' U.S. Senate runoff election in May between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and his challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The question prompted Trump to bring up the primary election in which Talarico beat U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett for the Democratic nomination for Texas' Senate seat.
Trump said:
The good news is their candidate [Talarico] is whacked out. With his six different forms of gender and all the things that I saw. The insult to Jesus. I mean, such an insult. [unintelligible] And you know, it's very interesting. They had no fear of her [Crockett] because she's a low-IQ individual. But they really waited, the Republicans waited. They really wanted to run against him because they had these things and nobody knew they had them. All this bad stuff came out about him. He is so woke. He's beyond woke. He's actually — I think he's grossly incompetent.
Trump doubled down on his comment with a March 22 post on social media, part of which stated, "He's got six Genders, insults to Jesus, only vegan food, was wearing a mask in 2023 and 2024, and is a weak, ineffective guy who we 'allowed' to win prior to releasing the avalanche of information we had on him because, as bad as Crockett was as a Candidate, this guy is worse!"
It appeared Trump was not calling Talarico himself an "insult to Jesus," as some online claimed, but rather referring to his beliefs. We reached out to Trump and Talarico for further comment and will update this article if we receive a response.
LGBTQ+ news outlets such as LGBTQ Nation and the Dallas Voice reported Trump's statements as an attack on transgender rights.
Trump's comments occurred after Talarico's 2021 statement in defense of transgender athletes recirculated in conservative circles following his primary victory.
Talarico responded to Trump's Fox News comment on Fox News during a speech on March 18, which he posted to social media.
Talarico said in part:
The president of the United States just said that I insulted Jesus. You wanna know what insults Jesus? Kicking the sick off their health care while cutting taxes for billionaires. You know what insults Jesus? Deporting the stranger and separating babies from their mothers. You know what insults Jesus? Bombing innocent schoolchildren in Iran and sending our brave men and women off to die in another forever war. You know what insults Jesus? Covering up the Epstein files and then refusing to prosecute a single person in them. I am not a perfect Christian; I don't claim to be. There's only been one perfect Christian and he was crucified on a cross 2,000 years ago.