Since beginning his second presidential term, Donald Trump has made restricting healthcare access and civil rights a defining feature of his administration.  Research shows that authoritarians often manufacture and weaponize moral panics around gender and sexuality to weaken democratic institutions. By targeting marginalized groups, they erode the civil rights protections that safeguard all citizens and consolidate political power. Controlling people’s bodies becomes a means of controlling populations, suppressing dissent, and maintaining social and political dominance. Through this lens we can determine that the Trump administration’s efforts to limit reproductive rights and LGBTQ equality are not isolated policy choices but part of a broader authoritarian playbook.