Donald Trump has waded into the growing debate surrounding transgender athletes in the United States while speaking at a ‘Save America’ rally in Texas, vowing that they will no longer be permitted to compete against biologically-born women when the Republican Party wrestles back control from their Democrat counterparts.
Trump, who stopped short of committing to a presidential run in 2024, gave a lengthy 80-minute speech to the assembled masses in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday night where he touched on a range of issues from illegal immigration to the possibility of pardons for those convicted in relation to the January 6 2021 riots at the US Capitol.
But it was the issue of transgender rights, and the fairness of them competing against naturally-born women in athletic competition, which appeared to be one of the central tenets of Trump’s polemic.
Trans rights has been a political battleground between the contrasting philosophies within the US political sphere. More and more figures within sport have begun speaking out against the efficacy of having trans athletes competing alongside cisgender women, with stories from the worlds of weightlifting, swimming another others drawing global attention in recent months.
But as far as Trump is concerned, this is exactly where the Republican party should draw the line.
“We will ban men from participating in women’s sports. So ridiculous,” Trump said.