First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
President Donald Trump turned New York's latest language fight into comedy gold Friday night, mocking a bill moving through Albany that would scrub the words "mother" and "father" from parts of state law and replace them with "gestating parent" and "non-gestating parent." Speaking to thousands at a rally in Syracuse, Trump did his best impression of life under the new terminology: "You can no longer say, hi mom! It's, HI GESTATING. Hi gestating. I love you so much gestating." The crowd roared.
The bill is real, and it goes further than most people realize. Backed by Democratic lawmakers — sponsored by Sen. Luis Sepulveda and Assemblywoman Amy Paulin — it rewrites references across family court proceedings, domestic relations, child support, custody determinations, and even education statutes. "Mother" becomes "gestating parent." "Father" becomes "non-gestating parent" or just "parent," depending on the provision. "Paternity" proceedings become "parentage" cases. "Putative father" becomes "alleged parent." It passed the Assembly earlier this year, cleared the State Senate this week, and now sits on Gov. Kathy Hochul's desk. If she signs it, the changes take effect November 1.
Trump didn't stop at the jokes. He tied the bill to Hochul directly, calling her a "radical left lunatic" and lumping the language change in with everything else he says Albany has gotten wrong — from crime to the cost of living. Then he pointed the crowd toward the alternative: Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican nominee for governor, who was on stage with him. "New York needs to throw out this radical left lunatic and elect Bruce Blakeman," Trump declared. Blakeman had his own verdict on the bill earlier in the night: "This is insane." He told the crowd the bill's backers want to "take control away from parents," adding: "They're denigrating moms and dads. They're letting Albany make the decisions that should be up to parents."
Supporters of the change say it isn't about erasing anyone — it's about updating the law to match families as they actually exist. They argue the new language simply aligns statutes with how courts already handle surrogacy, same-sex parenting, and adoption, where biological status doesn't always match who is functioning as a child's legal parent. The bill memorandum makes that case explicitly. But critics answer that the old language never stopped courts from recognizing those families — and that replacing "mother" rather than adding to it tells you everything about the intent. As one put it: the terms sound like they were drafted by a hospital billing department, not by anyone who has ever been called Mom or Dad.
The politics are hard to miss. A Marist poll released Wednesday had Blakeman trailing Hochul by 11 points, though a Siena survey last month showed him within single digits. Trump clearly sees the "gestating parent" fight as the kind of cultural flashpoint that moves voters — the sort of thing that sounds absurd in a headline and lands even harder when he performs it on stage. Whether Hochul signs the bill or lets it sit, the clip of Trump saying "hi gestating" is going to live on a lot longer than the legislative session.