During a recent commencement event at the University of Alabama, President Donald Trump humorously suggested that he might face some disapproval from his wife, Melania Trump, following an impersonation of a transgender athlete.
In his speech on Thursday, May 1, Trump broached the subject of transgender athletes in weightlifting contests, noting that Melania had previously told him such impressions were “not very presidential.”
“The greatest is like weightlifting, you ever see the weightlifting? Where they have a record that wasn’t broken in 18 years,” he remarked.
He jokingly contemplated, “Should I imitate… my wife gets very upset when I do this… she said ‘darling it’s not presidential’ yeah but people like it. Should I do it or not? Alright, I’m in trouble when I get home but I’ve been in lots of trouble before.”
Trump then launched into a narrative involving two competitors in a weightlifting competition.
He mimicked a female athlete struggling with the weights, followed in his example by a ‘transitioned person’ who successfully lifts the weights and sets a new record.
“A guy comes along, or a gal, or whatever, a transitioned person… and he was a failed weight lifter as a man… and breaks the record… that’s not right,” Trump commented.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration accused the University of Pennsylvania of violating federal civil rights laws by permitting transgender athletes to compete. The institution was given ten days to address these violations voluntarily or face potential enforcement action from the US Department of Justice (DOJ).
“Little girls who look up to Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan can find hope in today’s action — the Trump Administration will not allow male athletes to invade female private spaces or compete in female categories,” stated Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department.
“UPenn has a choice to make: do the right thing for its female students and come into full compliance with Title IX immediately or continue to advance an extremist political project that violates federal antidiscrimination law and puts UPenn’s federal funding at risk.”
Shortly after resuming his presidency in January, Trump issued an executive order recognizing only male and female as the two sexes. The order asserts: “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.”