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Donald Trump holds a marker during an executive order signing ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House.
He signed the “No Men in Women’s Sports” executive order in a televised signing ceremony spectacle from the East Wing of the White House.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order in the East Room of the White House on Wednesday, fulfilling a campaign promise to restrict transgender Americans from participation in sports as part of a broader push against LGBTQ+ rights. The White House had announced Wednesday morning that Trump would sign what it called the “No Men in Women’s Sports" executive order into law. However, executive orders are not laws; they are directives issued by the president to federal agencies.
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Before signing the order, Trump delivered a more than 30-minute-long rambling speech filled with incendiary rhetoric, falsely claiming that "men are beating up, injuring, and cheating our women and our girls." He framed the executive action as a defense of “the proud tradition of female athletes” and vowed that "women’s sports will be only for women."
"In a few moments, I’ll sign a historic executive order to ban men from competing in women’s sports. It’s about time," Trump said. "Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls."
He also falsely suggested that transgender athletes have won "more than 3,500 victories" and "invaded more than 11,000 competitions," citing isolated cases while misrepresenting the reality of transgender participation in sports. He went on to claim that "a male boxer stole the women’s gold medal" at the Paris Olympics after supposedly "brutalizing his female opponent so viciously that she had to forfeit." Trump was apparently referring to Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who became the target of bigoted rumors by right-wing influencers who claimed she was trans, although she is not.
Trump further warned that public schools and colleges that do not comply with the order would "risk their federal funding," adding, “There will be no federal funding, so this will effectively end the attack on female athletes at public K-12 schools and virtually all U.S. colleges and universities.” Trump went on to thank a cadre of conservative people, including politicians and activists, including the leaders of the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-government extremist group Moms for Liberty.
The order mandates immediate enforcement against schools and athletic associations, with the administration expecting the National Collegiate Athletic Association to change its rules in response. White House officials framed the move as a rejection of what they described as the Biden administration’s drastic reinterpretation of Title IX, arguing that the previous administration allowed transgender athletes, whom the administration considers men, to compete in women’s sports. However, the Biden administration had consistently asserted that its policies aimed to protect all athletes from discrimination rather than explicitly endorsing transgender participation. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 bans sex discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funding.
Related: Donald Trump’s government declares that transgender and nonbinary people don’t exist
Trump’s order follows a recent federal court ruling that struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students nationwide. U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves ruled that the Biden-era regulations, which expanded Title IX to include protections against discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, overstepped the Department of Education’s authority. That decision, lauded by conservatives, cleared the way for the Trump administration to reshape federal protections for transgender students, including their participation in school sports.
Related: Donald Trump signs new executive order affecting transgender military members
Despite the increased political rhetoric surrounding transgender athletes, NCAA President Charlie Baker recently testified before a U.S. Senate panel that fewer than 10 transgender athletes currently compete in NCAA sports. The NCAA oversees 510,000 student-athletes, meaning transgender athletes make up an infinitesimally small fraction of collegiate sports participants.
Civil rights advocates condemned Trump’s executive order, warning that it would increase harassment and discrimination against transgender people.
“Banning transgender athletes was a campaign promise, and I knew it was coming, but my heart still breaks for the young people who are being targeted for political gain,” Chris Mosier, a transgender athlete and activist, told The Advocate. “This Executive Order piles on to the harmful, dangerous, and sometimes deadly rhetoric and misinformation about transgender people. The truth is, we play sports for the same reasons as everyone else—to be a part of a team, to challenge ourselves, and to have fun.”
Mosier also called out the timing of the executive order. “Releasing this Executive Order on National Girls and Women in Sports Day is a political stunt disguised as concern for women and girls, but in reality, it undermines the safety and opportunity of all women and girls in sports,” he said. “Sports bans harm all women and girls by inviting additional scrutiny of the bodies of any woman or girl who doesn’t conform to sex-based stereotypes. It sends a harmful message to all women and girls that it is unacceptable and dangerous to exist outside of narrow, stereotypical notions of femininity.”
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson highlighted the administration’s damage toward all young people. “We all want sports to be fair, students to be safe, and young people to have the opportunity to participate alongside their peers,” Robinson said. “But an attempted blanket ban deprives kids of those things. This order could expose young people to harassment and discrimination, emboldening people to question the gender of kids who don’t fit a narrow view of how they’re supposed to dress or look.”
Robinson added, “[It] comes at a time when the Trump Administration continues to distract and divide the country, handing the keys to the federal government to unelected billionaires and refusing to address urgent issues that the country is facing. Participating in sports is about learning the values of teamwork, dedication, and perseverance. And for so many students, sports are about finding somewhere to belong. We should want that for all kids – not partisan policies that make life harder for them.”
Related: Trump signs executive order banning federal support of gender-affirming care for anyone under 19
This executive order is the latest in a series of sweeping anti-trans measures Trump has enacted since returning to the White House. On January 20, after his inauguration, he signed an order titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," which effectively erased federal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people by defining gender strictly as male or female based on assigned sex at birth. The directive revoked gender identity protections across all federal agencies, requiring government-issued identification, including passports and Social Security records, to reflect only birth sex. It also eliminated federal safeguards against discrimination based on gender identity in schools, workplaces, and public accommodations.
On January 27, while aboard Air Force One, Trump signed an executive order targeting transgender military service members. The directive, titled "Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness," removed federal policies allowing transgender Americans to serve openly, stating that transgender identities were "incompatible with military values" and undermined "unit cohesion." The order signaled a return to the trans military ban enacted during Trump’s first term, which former President Joe Biden had reversed in 2021.
The following day, Trump signed an order restricting federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender minors and some adults. The measure, titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," directed federal agencies to withdraw funding from institutions that provide puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and gender-affirming surgeries for anyone under 19. It also eliminated coverage of these treatments from federal employee health plans and TRICARE, the military’s health care system. The order called gender-affirming care “a stain on the nation’s history” and tasked the Department of Justice with investigating providers.
GLAAD issued a statement condemning Trump’s latest executive dictum. “This administration’s latest inaccurate and incoherent piece of paper smears an entire group of Americans but does not change the law or the facts. All women and girls, including transgender women and girls, should be welcome to play sports if they want, make decisions about their own bodies, be hired for jobs they are qualified for, and be free from lawless attacks by elected officials,” GLAAD wrote.
Legal experts note that executive orders cannot override federal civil rights protections, including those under Title IX, without congressional action and are expected to face swift legal challenges. This order is expected to face those challenges as well.
However, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt falsely insisted during a press briefing before the signing ceremony that the order “is going to be federal law in about an hour and a half.”
Leavitt called the Biden administration’s trans-inclusive policies a “disgusting betrayal of women and girls” and declared that “gender ideology insanity is over.” She framed the executive order as an effort to “defend the safety of athletes, protect competitive integrity, and uphold the promise of Title IX.”
During the press conference, Leavitt also claimed the order would pressure the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic Committee into banning transgender women from women’s competitions, though neither organization is required to comply with executive orders. “The president, with the signing of his pen, starts a very public pressure campaign on these organizations to do the right thing for women and for girls across the country,” she said.
GLAAD had a different position. “Anti-LGBTQ politicians with a record of abusing and silencing women and stripping their health care have zero credibility in any conversation about protecting women and girls,” GLAAD said. “Every American should demand that so-called leaders stop attacking vulnerable people and start doing their jobs solving actual problems.”
Mosier, who is the first transgender athlete to represent the United States in international competition and the first trans athlete to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the gender with which they identify, added, “I have worked for the last 15 years to make it easier for the transgender athletes who followed in my footsteps, and I will continue to fight for the rights of my community and to ensure there are safe, welcoming, and affirming spaces for young people like me.”
