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By Monica Sager and Gabe Whisnant
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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would direct Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to "reject any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying as women athletes."
Why It Matters
After campaigning heavily about transgender issues, one of Trump's first executive orders declared that there are only two genders, "male and female."
Read More on Politics
Last week, Trump signed another executive order instructing agencies to ensure that hospitals receiving federal research and education grants "end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children." He also signed an order to prevent transgender service members within the military.
With Trump's other executive orders about transgender rights, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started to remove language around gender identity and sexual orientation from its website.
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What To Know
The president made the statement as he spoke about the 2028 Summer Olympic Games that will take place in Los Angeles, just before signing an executive order that would prevent transgender athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports.
"I'm also directing our Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem...to deny any and all Visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes," Trump said. "Trying to get into the games maybe where they are unable to get into the games."
The Summer Olympics will be held from July 14 to 30, 2028. Los Angeles is the host city, and other events will be held in Oklahoma City. This will mark the fifth Summer Olympics and ninth overall games hosted in the United States.
"In Los Angeles, in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter our female athletes," Trump said. "In Los Angeles, in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter our female athletes. We're just not going to let it happen. It's going to end. It's ending right now, and nobody is going to be able to do a damn thing about it because when I speak, we speak with authority."
Trump also added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio "will make clear to the International Olympic Committees...that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy."
"We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject that we even have to talk about this subject," Trump said.
Donald Trump On Transgender Laws
Trump made the idea of keeping "men out of women's sports" a key component of his 2024 presidential campaign.
"We will keep men out of women's sports," Trump said at an event in Arizona on the campaign trail. "Under the Trump administration, it will be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders—male and female. It doesn't sound too complicated. Does it?"
During his appearance on the Bussin' with the Boys podcast, he called the idea of including transgender athletes in women's sports "ridiculous."
He also stated his side when he accepted the Republican presidential nomination last July.
"We will not have men playing in women's sports. That will end immediately," he said.
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At Wednesday's executive order signing, Trump blamed Democrats for the discussion around transgender athletes.
"They can't win an argument. They can't win the debate," Trump said. "They look like fools, and they continue to go on...All they want to do is transgender and men playing in women's sports and all of these crazy things."
The GOP-majority House of Representatives passed a bill barring transgender student-athletes from female interscholastic and intercollegiate female sports in January. The vote fell mostly along party lines, with a 218-206 result.
The measure would amend Title IX and prohibit "a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls."
What People Are Saying
Representative Nancy Mace, in a statement to Newsweek: "For too long, the Left has sacrificed women's rights on the altar of woke politics. Women's sports exist for a reason—because biological differences matter. No amount of activism, corporate pressure, or lies can erase reality—men are biologically different from women.
"This executive order restores fairness, upholds Title IX's original intent, and defends the rights of female athletes who have worked their whole lives to compete at the highest levels."
Republican Florida Representative Greg Steube, who sponsored the House bill: "In our culture and civilization, we continue to be subjected to the perverse lie that there are more than two genders or that men can be women or women can be men. We must never let our country and the American way of life surrender to the immoral ideology."
What Happens Next
The Olympics will be held in Los Angeles in 2028, during the last summer of Trump's second term in office.
Update 2/5/25, 4:47 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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