During his commencement address at West Point on Saturday, President Donald Trump reaffirmed his stance that girls and women “will not” compete against transgender athletes.
Trump previously signed an executive order on February 5 banning biological males from participating in girls’ and women’s sports.
Addressing a graduating class of 1,002 cadets, the president returned to the issue during his remarks, Fox News noted.
“We will not have men in women’s sports, if that’s OK,” he said. “I mean, I wouldn’t want to have to tackle, as an example, (quarterback) Bryson (Daily) as a man. But I don’t think a lot of women want to tackle him. I don’t think so. How crazy is it? Men playing in women’s sports. How crazy is it? So ridiculous. So demeaning. So demeaning to women. And it’s over. That’s over. We ended it.”
Several states have pushed back against President Trump’s executive order, prompting federal Title IX investigations. In one case, the Department of Agriculture temporarily withheld federal funding from the state of Maine, though a federal judge later ordered the funds to be reinstated.
The controversy escalated into a widely publicized dispute between Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills shortly after the order was issued, Fox noted further.
More recently, a school district in Washington, despite being in a traditionally blue state, voted to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports. The decision directly challenges a policy enacted by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) in 2007, which permits transgender students to participate according to their gender identity.
The debate intensified in May when a transgender athlete won a girls’ cross-country championship in the state.
Trump echoed a similar message earlier this month during his commencement speech at the University of Alabama.
A recent New York Times/Ipsos poll found that a clear majority of Americans—including most Democrats—oppose allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. Among the 2,128 respondents, 79% said biological males who identify as female should not be permitted to participate in women’s competitions.
Of the 1,025 respondents who identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic, 67% shared that view, Fox noted.
Nearly 70% of Americans say biological men should not be permitted to compete in women’s sports, according to a Gallup poll last year.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration earlier this month in overturning a lower court injunction that had prevented the Pentagon’s transgender military ban from taking effect.
