During President Trump's Joint Address He Mentioned Transgender Mice — He Got It Wrong
President Donald Trump is obsessed with the word trans.

Published March 5 2025, 10:49 a.m. ET

President Donald Trump gave his first address to a joint session of Congress since he was elected for a second time. The nearly 100-minute speech occurred six weeks after his inauguration, and was riddled with drama and inaccuracies. Mere minutes into what can only be described as a lecture, President Trump had Rep. Al Green ejected after he stood up and shouted that the president had no mandate to cut Medicaid. It only went downhill from there.
The president proceeded to berate the Democrats for refusing to stand and clap during the address. He also freely admitted that Elon Musk, an unelected bureaucrat, is the head of DOGE. At one point, President Trump listed all the ways in which DOGE reportedly saved the American people money. This included a reference to a study involving $8 million being used for "transgender mice," which was incorrect. He was actually referring to transgenic mice.

What are transgenic mice?
According to the National Cancer Institute, transgenic mice are "mice that have had DNA from another source put into their DNA." This new DNA is put into the nucleus of a fertilized mouse egg so that the foreign DNA becomes part every tissue and cell of the mouse. This is used to study diseases.
It's obvious that the prefix "trans" is what President Trump was transfixed on. The actual definition of this prefix is "across, beyond, through, or changing thoroughly," per Dictionary.com. In the case of transgenic mice, this is meant to convey that the genes of the mouse being studied are changing.
The responses to the president's gaffe on social media have been predictably comical. Perhaps the most thrilling comment came from comedian Guy Braunum. In a post to X he said, "You know those trans mice would make Cinderella a hell of a dress."