--- ---  # Donald Trump Says People Should Use Whatever Bathrooms They Want by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:53 PM UTCPublished: Apr 21, 2016 2:55 PM UTC  Presidential candidate Donald Trump attends NBC's "Today" Trump Town Hall at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City on April 21, 2016. Presidential candidate Donald Trump attends NBC's "Today" Trump Town Hall at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City on April 21, 2016.John Lamparski—Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:53 PM UTCPublished: Apr 21, 2016 2:55 PM UTC Republican presidential front-runner [Donald Trump said Thursday](http://www.today.com/news/donald-trump-joins-today-show-live-town-hall-answers-voters-t87551) that people should be allowed to use whatever bathroom they feel is appropriate, bucking conservatives in [the growing national fight over laws governing bathroom access for transgender people](http://time.com/3734714/transgender-bathroom-bills-lgbt-discrimination/). Trump also said that if Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender woman and [TIME 100 honoree](http://time.com/4301820/caitlyn-jenner-2016-time-100/), were to use the facilities in Trump Tower, she would be allowed to use whatever restroom she felt most comfortable in. “There’s a big move to create new bathrooms. The problem with that, it’s for transgender, first of all, I think that would be discriminatory in a certain way,” Trump said during an town hall on the [_Today_](http://www.today.com/news/donald-trump-joins-today-show-live-town-hall-answers-voters-t87551)show_._ “It would be unbelievably expensive for businesses and for the country. Leave it the way it is.” The candidate’s comments come in the wake of a North Carolina law that would force transgender people to use restrooms that match the gender they were assigned at birth. Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump’s main rival in the race for the Republican nomination, came out in favor of such laws in [an interview with Glenn Beck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQlsUNyi8F8). “This is absurd,” Cruz said. “The idea that grown men would be allowed alone in a bathroom with little girls—you don’t need to be a behavioral psychologist to realize bad things can happen. A prudent person wouldn’t allow that.” A spokesperson for North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign, Ricky Diaz, sent TIME the following statement via email in response to Trump: --- > “” --- Donald Trump Open to Transgender Bathroom Access ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4303252/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom-lgbt-ted-cruz/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4303252/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom-lgbt-ted-cruz/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says People Should Use Whatever Bathrooms They Want","datePublished":"2016-04-21T14:55:05.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:53:37.000Z","description":"The Republican goes against most conservative leaders on transgender bathroom access","url":"https://time.com/4303252/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom-lgbt-ted-cruz/","keywords":["gender","LGBT","North Carolina","Bathroom","ted cruz","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt030d5f4d9f401939/6988902fab6d77f18a6a95f9/gettyimages-522829644.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt030d5f4d9f401939/6988902fab6d77f18a6a95f9/gettyimages-522829644.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Presidential candidate Donald Trump attends NBC's \"Today\" Trump Town Hall at Rockefeller Plaza on April 21, 2016 in New York City.","caption":"Presidential candidate Donald Trump attends NBC's \"Today\" Trump Town Hall at Rockefeller Plaza on April 21, 2016 in New York City.","creditText":"John Lamparski—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4303252/donald-trump-transgender-bathroom-lgbt-ted-cruz/","name":"Donald Trump Says People Should Use Whatever Bathrooms They Want"}}]}] ```