Punishing gender-affirming care: social media and U.S. anti-trans politics

Abstract Political communication relies heavily on digital platforms that reward hostile content with greater audience engagement. Following Executive Orders 14168 and 14187 in January 2025, the Trump administration orchestrated a rapid, multi-agency dismantling of institutional support for gender-affirming care. This article argues that these orders functioned simultaneously as administrative mandates and as social media content designed to discipline institutional infrastructure through an antagonistic “gender ideology” framing. The study traces how the directives became entangled with platform dynamics to consolidate affective publics around punitive state action. Following the orders, Trump mentions escalated from 0.9% to 80.2% of high-engagement transgender discourse, while the “gender ideology” frame became predominant, displacing neutral language. Rather than targeting individuals directly, the orders transformed bureaucratic retrenchment into an iterative social media spectacle. This study demonstrates how state authority leverages platform dynamics to mobilize publics around institutional punishment, framing digital populism as an enduring element of American governance.