Former President Donald Trump said Wednesday he has a simple plan to address concerns about transgender athletes participating in women’s sports: “You just ban it.”
Asked by a member of the all-female audience during a Fox News town hall how he would address “the transgender issue in women’s sports,” Trump swiftly quipped that it was “such an easy question.”
“Everybody in the room and you know that answer, we’re not going to let it happen,” he said, noting the dangers involved with transgender athletes playing against women.
Trump then went on to reference a Thursday night incident in which a San Diego State University women’s volleyball player was hit in the face by an opponent who had transitioned from male to female, knocking the player down.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” he said. “But other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been permanently — I mean, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men.
“But you don’t have to do the volleyball. We stop it. We stop it. We absolutely stop it. You can’t have it.”
The 45th president, 78, explained that the physical makeup of a person born male creates an unfair — and sometimes dangerous — advantage for transgender players facing off against those born female.
“It’s a man playing in the game. I mean, physically from a muscular, even if it was a little bit less, maybe they do all sorts of tests and drugs and everything else,” he said.
“Look at what’s happened in swimming. Look at the records that are being broken.”
After explaining his stance, town hall host Harris Faulkner pressed Trump on how he would end the practice.
“How do you stop it? Do you go to the sports leagues? Do you go to the Olympics?” she asked.
Trump had a quick response to the question: “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”
