Donald Trump signs executive order banning trans women athletes from competing in female sports
Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning trans women athletes from competing in female sports.
The move is designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in certain sporting events, including those at school.
The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, will call for “immediate enforcement” against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms.
It also coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and it marks another notable shift in the way the federal government treats transgender people under Mr Trump.
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Pic: Reuters
Ahead of signing the order, Mr Trump said: “From now on women’s sports will be only for women.
“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”
He also spoke about the coming Olympics and World Cup which the US is hosting, and said he wouldn’t allow any transgender athletes to compete.
He went on: “In Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.
“We’re not going to let it happen.
“Just to make sure, I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the US while identifying as women athletes to try and get into the games.”
In signing the order, surrounded by a number of women and girls, Mr Trump claimed “the war on women’s sports is over”.
Donald Trump speaking ahead of signing the order.
Pic: Reuters/Leah Millis
The order authorises the education department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete and any school found in violation could lose its federal funding.
Despite their small numbers within America, transgender people have been the target of three orders signed by Mr Trump since coming into office, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reported.
These targeted participation in the military and access to gender-affirming care.
On his very first day in office last month, Mr Trump passed one order that called on the federal government to only recognise two genders – male and female.
During his campaign, he pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports” and get rid of the “transgender insanity” but his office offered little in the way of details.
Olivia Hunt, director of federal policy at Advocates for Trans Equality, told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim that the order wasn’t just about elite athletes but would impact young children and their development too.
She said: “We’re basically taking those children and saying to them we don’t think it’s vital that you learn the same sets of skills that your peers develop [playing sports].
“We are setting you aside, putting you apart, and saying you’re different and it’s okay for you to be set aside, treated differently, and bullied by your peers.
“Children should be protected. Children should be allowed to follow their interests, follow the sports they want to participate in and not have to worry that public officials will treat their existence as a cheap round of applause.”
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Trump’s trans sport stance welcomed
This is the latest in a flurry of executive orders the Republican president has enacted in his first days and weeks in office.
Some of these have been blocked by judges, and it is not yet clear if this order will avoid such a fate.
It will likely involve how the Trump administration interprets Title IX – a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programmes or activities that receive federal funding.
Ahead of the signing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX”.
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‘A solution looking for a problem’
It is not clear how many trans athletes are competing in the US, but cases like Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania have drawn attention in the past.
Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, described the order as a “solution looking for a problem”.
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Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, pointed out that Mr Trump could have just “read the [existing] regulation traditionally” to achieve the same goals, instead of introducing the new executive orders.
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump he “will not back down” from Russia’s goals in Ukraine during a phone call today, the Kremlin has said.
The Russian president spoke to his US counterpart for almost an hour, and Mr Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
In response, Mr Putin said “Russia will not back down” from its aims there, which include “the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Mr Ushakov said.
The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for Moscow’s argument that it was compelled to invade Ukraine in order to prevent the country from joining NATO.
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Trump and Putin’s latest call on Ukraine
Ukraine and its European allies say this is a pretext to justify what they call an imperial-style war, but Mr Trump has previously shown sympathy with Russia.
At the same time, Mr Putin told the US president that Russia is ready to continue negotiating, the aide said.
The Russian president said any prospective peace deal must see Ukraine give up its NATO bid and recognise his country’s territorial gains.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seen with Mr Trump in June, is pushing for Ukraine to join NATO. Pic: Reuters
He also briefed Mr Trump on agreements made last month, which saw Russia and Ukraine exchange prisoners of war and dead soldiers.
Specific dates for the third round of peace talks in Istanbul were not discussed – nor was the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s call came after the Pentagon confirmed some weapons due to be sent to Ukraine have been held as it reviews military stockpiles.
The paused shipments include air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, two people familiar with the situation have said.
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The decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington.
Kyiv also cautioned that the move would weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances.
Mr Putin and Mr Trump’s phone call was the sixth they have publicly disclosed since the US president returned to the White House in January.
Donald Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ has been passed by the US congress, sending it to the president to sign into law.
The controversial tax breaks and spending cuts package cleared its final hurdle as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the bill with a 218-214 vote.
The bill delivers tax breaks Mr Trump promised in his 2024 election campaign, cuts health and food safety programmes, and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), it will lower tax revenues by $4.5trn over 10 years and add $3.4trn to the US’s $36.2trn debt.
But despite concerns over the 869-page bill’s price tag – and its hit to healthcare programmes – Republicans largely lined up in support, with just two rebelling on the vote.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is congratulated following the vote. Pic: Reuters
Every Democrat in Congress voted against the bill, blasting it as a giveaway to the wealthy that will leave millions of Americans uninsured.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made the Republicans’ closing argument for the bill, telling Congress: “For everyday Americans, this means real, positive change that they can feel.”
Earlier, the House’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a record-breaking eight-hour and 44-minute speech against it.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” he said.
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The bill’s spending cuts largely target Medicaid, the health programme that covers 71 million Americans on low incomes.
It will tighten enrolment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments.
The changes could leave nearly 12 million people without health insurance, according to the CBO.
On the other side of the ledger, it will stave off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of the year, when tax cuts from President Trump’s first term were due to expire.
It also sets up new tax breaks for overtime pay, seniors and tipped income.
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The bill narrowly passed the US Senate on Tuesday after vice president JD Vance cast the deciding vote to break a 50-50 tie.
Mr Trump will sign it into law on Friday at 5pm local time (10pm in the UK), the White House said.
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