Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has declared that if a child says they are transgender, then they are really suffering a from a mental health crisis, and that it is "inhumane" to affirm their misguided belief.

"When a kid is saying their gender doesn't match their biological sex, they're going through a mental health struggle. That's a mental health condition," Ramaswamy said during an interview with The Blaze.

He continued, "The compassionate thing to do is not to affirm that confusion — that is not compassion, that is cruelty. The compassionate thing to do is figure out what's going wrong in that kid's life."

"The fact that that is now beyond the pale to even explore shows how far we've gone as a culture," the candidate urged.

"It is inhumane and barbaric that we live in a culture that lets this happen to children, and if we don't learn from those mistakes, we only have ourselves to blame," Ramaswamy further asserted.