Donald Trump has again drawn criticism after making remarks about female and transgender athletes during a campaign-style speech in Pennsylvania, despite previously saying Melania Trump had urged him to stop using one particular routine.
The comments came during an event at a Mack Trucks facility in Macungie, Pennsylvania, on June 23, where Trump had largely been talking about manufacturing jobs, inflation and energy costs before veering into the culture-war issue of transgender participation in women’s sport.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has repeatedly signaled his stance on transgender participation in sport through a series of executive actions. One of those measures stated that, for sporting purposes, only two genders would be recognized: male and female.
“Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept.”
The administration has also pressed federal agencies and sports bodies to follow that position more closely, while the issue has become a major flashpoint ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee has since moved to tighten its own eligibility rules for the female category, saying participation is now limited to biological females under a policy that takes effect for the 2028 Games.
Following that move, the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said it would align with government requirements.
“comply with federal expectations”
The next Olympic Games are due to be held in Los Angeles in 2028.
Earlier this year, Trump also attracted backlash over an on-stage imitation contrasting a female weightlifter with a transgender competitor.
He has previously acknowledged that the First Lady is not a fan of the act, saying she viewed it as inappropriate for a president. Even so, he returned to it during the Pennsylvania appearance on Tuesday, where he had mainly been addressing manufacturing workers on issues such as inflation and energy costs.
During the event, Trump veered into the subject of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports and repeated the same style of impression, acting out a woman struggling with a lift before a transgender athlete supposedly succeeds with ease.
“She said, ‘please please, don’t do the weightlifting thing and don’t do the swimming thing.'”
Despite repeating that advice to the crowd, he went ahead with the routine anyway.
In the bit, Trump depicted a woman failing to raise a 210lb weight before describing a transgender competitor as someone who had been unsuccessful in the men’s category and then won after competing as a woman.
“a bottom of the line male weightlifter but now he’s a female weightlifter”
The performance prompted fresh criticism online, much like previous versions of the same act.
“The so-called leader of the free world.”
“I just threw up a little in my mouth,”
Another person called the 80-year-old ‘infantile’, while someone else labeled him a ‘bloody embarrassment’.