Trump suggests he will ban transgender athletes through executive action

Former President Trump on Tuesday signaled he would ban transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identity though an executive order if he wins reelection next month.

During a taped town hall of all-women voters in Cumming, Ga., with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, Trump was asked by an audience member how he would handle “the transgender issue” in women’s sports as president. 

"It’s such an easy question, and everybody in the room and you know that answer,” Trump said during Tuesday’s town hall. “We're not going to let it happen.” 

Trump in his response referenced a viral video of a transgender college volleyball player in California spiking a ball in her opponent’s face. The player hit with the ball was unharmed, and the transgender athlete’s team ultimately lost the match in straight sets.

“I never saw a ball hit so hard,” Trump said, referring to the video. His administration, he said, will “absolutely stop” schools from allowing transgender athletes to play on sports teams that match their gender identity. 

“You can’t have it,” he said. 

When pressed by Faulkner on how he would prevent trans athletes from competing, Trump said he would “just ban it.” 

“The president bans it,” Trump said to cheers and applause from the audience. “You just don’t let it happen. Not a big deal." 

Trump has pledged on multiple occasions to bar transgender women and girls, whom he calls “men,” from female sports if he returns to the White House next year but has not previously outlined how his administration would do so.  

The former president in 2022 promised to sign several executive orders intended to combat “left-wing gender insanity” in the U.S. if he is reelected, including an order instructing federal agencies to cease programs that “promote” the concept that a person can transition to a different gender. In May, Trump said he would similarly reverse new transgender student protections that were instituted this year by the Biden administration “on day one” of his presidency.  

The Education Department’s new Title IX regulations, to which Trump was referring, cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools and education programs but do not apply to athletics. 

A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Trump and Republicans have seized on transgender issues ahead of November’s election, blanketing the nation in campaign ads that paint Democrats who support transgender athletes and gender-affirming health care as extremists who will harm children if they are elected. 

There is no broad consensus on policies impacting transgender individuals, though most Americans oppose laws that limit or ban access to gender-affirming care for minors, a June Gallup poll found. Sixty-nine percent adults in the same survey said they believe transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their sex assigned at birth, up from 62 percent in 2021. 

The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Sunday called transgender athletes “a 2024 sleeper issue.” 

Half the nation has enacted laws prohibiting transgender student-athletes from competing in accordance with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ policy think tank, though Republican lawmakers backing the policies have struggled to cite examples of transgender girls competing in their states. 

At least three separate bills to ban transgender athletes from sports nationwide were introduced this Congress by House Republicans. One of them, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, passed the House but failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.