President Donald Trump issued a rebuke of the state for allowing a 16-year-old transgender runner to compete. Trump said the inclusion of a biological male was “totally demeaning to women and girls” and threatened to pull funding from the state. McMahon confirmed on Fox & Friends that this would be a reality unless the state makes immediate changes.
“We are giving them 10 days to remedy the situation. We have a remedy for them, but if they do not comply within 10 days, we will refer this to the Department of Justice,” McMahon said. “They really need to send a letter of apology to all of the female participants in sports. They need to return the titles that were taken away from these women who competed and lost to the males in sports, and they just have to make it right to those women competitors.”
This follows Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order, which clarified that Title IX, a law banning sex-based discrimination, would be enforced on the basis of biological sex. His administration argues that requiring biological females to compete against a transgender woman instead of having biological female-exclusive sports constitutes a civil rights violation.
Federal funding comprised over one-third, or $152.8 billion, of California’s 2024-25 budget, according to the California Budget and Policy Center. While McMahon did not detail how much federal funding could be lost due to this violation, she said it would be a “substantial amount.”
“They run the risk of losing their federal funding, in their K-12 schools, that’s where these infractions were committed,” McMahon said before paraphrasing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) take on the matter. “It’s very interesting to hear Gov. Newsom say it’s a matter of fairness. It is easy. Talk is cheap. I think he needs to put his money where his mouth is.”
A spokesperson for Newsom defended the policy even though the California Interscholastic Federation is independent from the governor’s administration.
“It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump Administration threatening to defund California,” Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director, told the Washington Examiner. “Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.”
CALIFORNIA INVITES MORE GIRLS TO TRACK AND FIELD FINAL AFTER TRANS ATHLETE QUALIFIES
This is the result of an investigation launched by the Education Department in February into the CIF due to its defiance of the executive order. Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said at the time, “History does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment.”
There are 1,500 schools under the CIF’s jurisdiction.
