Donald Trump gave an interview to the Washington Post on Monday saying he would rescind President Obama’s sweeping directive to U.S. schools on transgender rights but said that trans people need to be protected:

“It is a very, very small portion of the population, but as I said, you have to protect everybody, including small portions of the population,” Trump said during the interview in his 26th-floor office at Trump Tower here in Manhattan.

…Asked whether he thought the issue had been overblown, Trump said: “I don’t think so, because you’ve got to protect all people, even though it’s a tiny percentage of 1 percent. I think from that standpoint, [states] should come up with a policy that’s going to work for everybody and protect people.”

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Trump said he did not know any transgender people nor knew of any who worked for him.

He said he did not view the issue the same way as Obama did: “I think it’s a people thing. I think we have to help people. I don’t view it as civil rights or not civil rights. I think it’s something where we have to help people — and hopefully the states will make the right decisions…It’s actually a very interesting subject to me. It’s certainly an issue that’s getting a lot of play and it’s an issue that I’m studying very closely.”