In video shared by Fox News on Monday, Donald Trump again claimed schools around the country are taking kids and performing operations on them.There are some places your boy leaves the school, comes back a girl, Trump insisted without proof. Related Donald Trump says schools are now almost exclusively teaching kids how to be transgender He claims he saw programs that showed that schools arent teaching math or reading anymore, theyre just teaching transgender. Okay? Without parental consent. What is that all about? Thats like when they talk about a threat to democracy,theyrea threat, Trump continued, apparently referring to his Democratic opponent and clearly rattled that her message about his authoritarian nature and cognitive decline are taking hold. Your LGBTQ+ guide to Election 2024 Stay ahead of the 2024 Election with our newsletter that covers candidates, issues, and perspectives that matter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today In a rambling answer to a Bronx dad at what the New York Post described as a surprise visit to a barbershop packed with Black men who support Trump, the former president, slumped in a barber chair, held forth incoherently on his solution for problems at Americas schools: stopping teachers and administrators from transitioning kids. All of this was in response to the dads question about how Trump would help Bronx public schools perform better the dad didnt mention trans kids at all.Could you imagine without parental consent? At first, what I was told that was actually happening, I said, you know, its an exaggeration. No. It happens! It happens in areas where it happens. Were not going to let it happen, but we are going to straighten out a lot, Trump said, untethered from the facts or syntax. It happens! Trump claims sex change operations are happening in US public schools. (Video: Fox News) pic.twitter.com/rR9zrytpJy Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 21, 2024Trump also added his stock answer of all but eliminating the Department of Education, claiming hed abolish every job at the Cabinet-level agency save the head of the department and a secretary for the Secretary.Were moving them back from Washington, where you have people that dont care about New York, frankly, Trump told his Bronx questioner. You know, in Washington, I dont know if you ever noticed that you got Department of Education, Department of Education. You got half the buildings are Department of Education.I never saw you dont need any of them. You know, I want one person and a secretary to just make sure theyre teaching English. Okay. Give a little English, he said. Okay? I say reading, writing, and arithmetic. No transgender, no operations. The sputtering appearance was just one in a week marked by the Republican nominees deteriorating campaign performances. Earlier in the week, Trump swayed to his Spotify playlist at a rally in Pennsylvania for close to 40 minutes, gesturing along to favorites like Ave Maria and Memory from Cats. On Sunday, Trump donned a Dukakis-worthy hat and McDonalds apron to work the frier and hand out free orders to fake drive-thru customers at a closed restaurant location. At a rally in Detroit, an 18-minute microphone malfunction left the 78-year-old fuming and wandering the stage.The faux surprise visit at Knockout Barber in The Bronx Thursday hosted spontaneously if you believe the campaigns claim by Fox & Friends co-host Lawrence Jones had customers waiting in the shop during a security lockdown from 9:30 in the morning until Trump staggered in at 4 p.m.Adding to the surreality at the barbershop: a clip reveals one barber shearing the neckline of a stand-in customer for thirty seconds, but not cutting his hair at all, one more clue to the staged nature of the supposedly spontaneous campaign stop.Trump did a Fox News interview at a Bronx barbershop that was shut down just for him.Is this barber pretending to cut hair during the interview perhaps to provide background footage and audio aesthetics? pic.twitter.com/kyu2uq6AUX PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) October 17, 2024 In June, the Trump campaign tricked the owner of a Black barbershop in Georgia into hosting what he said they characterized as a small business roundtable, not a Trump campaign event.A Black barbershop owner in Buckhead, GA was tricked into hosting a round table event for Donald Trump. Trump aides who didnt identify themselves told him it was going to be an event about small businesses in the community. He was shocked when Trump called in pic.twitter.com/7WiAiu4ZJz chris evans (@notcapnamerica) June 29, 2024You guys are the same as me, the slumped billionaire candidate told his Bronx barbershop fans. We were born the same way I know you people so well. I know you so well.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.