Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he will “ban” transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The 45th president shared the response during an all-female town hall hosted by Lauren Green on Fox News.
“How do you plan on addressing the transgender issue in women’s sports? I have nine grandchildren, six of them female, all playing sports, and we are very concerned for their safety,” a woman asked during the town hall.
“We just ban it. We’re not going to let it happen,” Trump replied.
Trump also expanded on the topic by addressing the ongoing controversy of a biological male volleyball player on the San Jose University women’s volleyball team.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” he said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently — I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men,” Trump stated.
“But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it,” he added.
The answer suggested Trump would sign an executive action to stop biological males from playing in girls’ and women’s sports, perhaps including K-12th grades and college.
“It’s a man playing in the game. I mean, physically from a muscular, even if it was a little bit less, maybe they do all sorts of tests and drugs and everything else,” he said. “Look at what’s happened in swimming. Look at the records that are being broken.”
Trump’s swimming reference likely focused on Lia Thomas, a biological male who joined the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team, winning numerous NCAA competitions and winning at the national level.
Riley Gaines, who competed against Lia Thomas and has become an outspoken advocate of protecting women and girls in sports, took to X to address another part of the question during Trump’s town hall.
“Harris Faulkner asks a room full of women how many of them are concerned about their daughters having to compete against a man in their sports,” Gaines posted to X. “EVERY woman raises their hand.”
Donald Trump Jr. also took to social media to applaud his father’s response.
“As the father of a daughter who is an incredible athlete this is the way and every mom I’ve spoken to agrees. The nonsense isn’t working anymore! No more men playing women’s sports,” he posted to X.