Remarks on Signing an Executive Order on Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports

The President. Thank you very much. This is a nice crowd, isn't it, huh? You've been waiting a long time for this.

Political activist and podcaster Riley Gaines Barker. Yes.

The President. So have I, actually. It's so ridiculous. [Laughter] But here we are.

And this doesn't have to be long. It's just all about common sense. It doesn't have to be long.

In a few moments, I'll sign a historic Executive order to ban men from competing in women's sports. It's about time.

Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure, and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women's sports will be only for women.

U.S. Military Recruitment Efforts

But before going further, I want to share some very exciting news from our military. After years of shrinking force numbers at levels that nobody has ever seen before—4 years of this, we went through—and missed recruiting targets every single month, it was just announced that, in December, the U.S. Army had its single best recruitment in more than 15 years. Great.

Every single day, nearly 350 new soldiers enlisted to defend our Nation, and they're very, very happy to have done so. We've done lots of interviews, and we asked why this was taking place now, and they just said, "There's a spirit about our country that they haven't seen in many, many years," and I happen to agree with that.

But it really is clear proof that this spirit is sweeping our Armed Forces. And we have a great leader in Pete, as you know. We all know Pete so well. He's going to be fantastic. And so many of our great heroes and people are starting to understand what "hero" is all about.

So that is something that is very important. We've gotten the woke lunacy out of our military.

Executive Order on Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports

And now we're, very importantly, getting it out of women's sports. That's taking place very strongly.

So, in recent years, the radical left has waged an all-out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology. You heard a little bit about this, haven't you? Huh? [Laughter] Just a little bit. Does anybody agree with them?

Audience members. No!

The President. It would be not a good thing to say "yes" right here. [Laughter]

Female athletes have been forced onto the front lines, and men claiming to be girls have stolen more than 3,500 victories—that's a lot—and invaded more than 11,000 competitions designed for women.

Last year, a male cyclist posing as a woman competed in the 800-mile Arizona Trail Race—a very big deal in cycling—and obliterated the woman's course record by nearly 5½ hours. [Laughter] Sounds like a lot, doesn't it? Huh? Five and a half hours, though.

But you have to hear the weightlifting records they've—[laughter]. That—you think that's bad. The weightlifting is worse. In 2023, a man in woman's powerlifting broke two world records and outlifted his closest female opponent in one event by 440 pounds. [Laughter]

And they continue to defend themselves, Mr. Congressman. You know that, right? They continue to defend themselves.

We hope they continue onward, because I don't think we can lose a race. This was one of the big reasons that we all won, and it's one of the big reasons that we had a record—a landslide like they haven't seen before—very often, anyway.

And who could forget last year's Paris Olympics, where a male boxer stole the woman's gold medal after brutalizing his female opponent so viciously that she had to forfeit just after 46 seconds? And she was a championship fighter. And actually, they had two women—or two people that transitioned, and both of them won gold medals, and they won them very convincingly.

But all of that ends today, because with this Executive order, the war on women's sports is over. [Applause] Thank you, everybody.

Participant. Thank you.

The President. Thank you. Great. Great. [Applause] Thank you. It should have been done long ago, actually.

Participant. Thanks, Riley.

The President. Thank you.

Participant. Thank you, Riley.

The President. Thank you very much.

With my action this afternoon, we are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of title IX and risk your Federal funding. There will be no Federal funding.

So this will effectively end the attack on female athletes at public K-12 schools and virtually all U.S. colleges and universities. I don't think we've missed anything. But if we do, we'll make it up very quickly with a—with an order, and I don't think we will at all.

I want to—before we go on, I want to thank so many people that have worked so hard in the political establishment, and they're before me, largely. And I'm going to—I think I'm going to miss a few. It always happens when you do this, but it's just one of those things.

But we have many Senators here, many Governors here, many State attorneys general—generals here. They're all over the place, actually, I see. Some of them went after me, but they failed. [Laughter]

And they're really friends, and they're friends of women's sports. That I can tell you.

So, Senator Marsha Blackburn. Where's Marsha? Hi.

Senator Katie Boyd Britt. Thank you, Katie.

Mike Lee. Where's Mike? Mike? I love his new haircut. I love that haircut, Mike. [Laughter] He just said, "The hell with it," right? [Laughter]

Senator Michael S. Lee. [Inaudible]

The President. I think you look great.

Senator Cynthia Lummis. Cynthia, where are you? Cynthia. Hi, Cynthia. Doing a good job. And Roger Marshall. Thank you, Roger. Great.

Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma. I love Oklahoma. I don't know what it is. Oklahoma, I won 77 out of 77 counties. [Laughter] It's never been done. Second was Ronald Reagan, 56, right? Yes.

And Tommy Tuberville, a great coach. You know, his quarterback was named Mahomes. He was a great college coach. And I said, "How good was he?" He said: "You don't want to know how good. He made me into a great coach." [Laughter] He's pretty—pretty good quarterback, right?

Senator Thomas H. Tuberville. Very good. [Laughter]

The President. Yes, he was very good. He's a good guy too.

Also, Governors—we have Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia. Thank you, Glenn. Good job. Bill Lee of Tennessee. Bill, thank you. Jeff Landry, Louisiana. Thank you, Jeff. Kim Reynolds of Iowa. Thank you.

We're trying to move, you know, education, back to the States. You do know that. We're making a big move, and we're counting on Linda McMahon. Linda McMahon.

And—sitting next to you is—the new star is born. Karoline, congratulations, you've done great. New star. A star is born.

Patrick Morrisey. Patrick, congratulations. Great race. A great friend of mine, and he's really helped us at the border, done a great job—of Texas, Greg Abbott. Thank you, Greg.

Jim Pillen, where are you? Jim, very good. Very good`—are you feeling good? He had a bad fall. You're doing all right, huh?

Governor James D. Pillen of Nebraska. I'm doing good.

The President. Good. You look great.

Brad Little. Brad—thank you, Brad. Good job. Good job. Do you like education going back to your State? You'll make it top, right?

You know, just so people understand, in the education world, we're ranked very, very poorly. We're 38, 39, and 40 out of 40 countries. We're at the bottom of the pack almost always or very close to it. That just came out. We're 40 out of 40.

And if we move it back to the States, I will guarantee you that if you take Idaho, you take Iowa, you take almost any of the States that I'm looking at right now, they'll be as good as Norway. You have Norway, you have Sweden, you have Denmark. I must say, you have China that's very high in the pack, which is no longer we can say it has to be a small area. China is very big, but they do a very good job.

But we'll have at least 35 of our States that will be as good or better than any of those countries, and we have to get it done.

Attorney General Steve Marshall. Steve, thank you very much, Steve, wherever you may be. General Tim Griffin, thank you. Thank you.

Oh, a person who was so wonderful, Brenna Bird. Where are you, Brenna? Brenna Bird, thank you. She supported me before people wanted to support me. Right, Brenna?

Iowa State Attorney General Brenna Bird. Yes. I love you. [Laughter]

The President. Wow. Thank you very much. I appreciated it.

Andrew Bailey, great job. Where is Andrew? Great—stand up, Andrew—one of the great attorney generals. Thank you very much. One of the greats, really. And Jason Miyares. Thanks, Jason.

And now we get back to our Members of Congress, and we'll go quickly, but it's a great group of people. Steve Scalise is right in front here. What a brave guy Steve is. Steve went through a lot, and he proved one thing to me—only one thing: that his wife loved him. [Laughter] His wife loves him, because I went to the hospital that night, and he was not given even a shot. Right——

House Majority Leader Stephen J. Scalise. Right.

The President. ——Mike? And I was with him, and I was with his wife, and she was devastated. She was really devastated. And I've been to, you know, similar situations—not quite as bad—but the wives were not so devastated. And I can tell you—[laughter]—I can tell you that great wife of yours loves you. So, anyway—and what you've done is incredible. The way you've come back, it's—you're better—you look better now than you did before it happened. But—[laughter]—but nobody wants to——

Leader Scalise. We both do. [Laughter]

The President. Nobody wants to go through that. Yes. It's amazing.

Tom Emmer, doing a fantastic job. Thank you, Tom. Great job. Lisa McClain. Lisa. Hi. Hi, Lisa. Hi. Good job. Virginia Foxx. Hi, Virginia. Tim Walberg, Michigan. Tim, great.

Jason Smith, great man on taxes. Great man on—how are the taxes doing? Okay?

Representative Jason T. Smith. We're doing great.

The President. We're going to get good things passed, I hope, right?

Rep. Smith. We're going to get it done.

The President. Juan Ciscomaris [Ciscomani; White House correction]—Arizona. Where are you, Juan?

Representative Juan Ciscomani. Right here.

The President. Hello, Juan. Stand up, Juan. You look so good. You always look good. [Laughter]

Kevin Kiley. Kevin, wherever you may be. What happened? How come he had no applause? [Laughter] Lauren Boebert—Lauren Boebert. Very much a leader in this. Thank you, Lauren. Kat Cammack, Florida. Thank you, Kat.

Byron Donalds, he's doing good. Byron is doing good. Where is he? You're doing good, Byron. Laurel Lee. Thank you, Laurel. Thank you. Great job. Anna Paulina Luna. Thank you. Thank you, Anna.

Greg Steube hit a home run wearing a Trump cap. The only one to hit a home run out of the park during your crazy baseball game, right? That's——

Representative W. Gregory Steube. You've got to come this year.

The President. Is he on—I think I will come.

Rep. Stuebe. Be there this year.

The President. I think I'll come. [Laughter] If you're playing, I'll come.

Somebody that's very shy—this is a very shy person, and—but she's trying to break out of it: Marjorie Taylor Greene. [Laughter] Victoria Spartz. Thank you, Victoria. Great job. Ashley Hinson. Ashley, thank you. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. Good job you did. Good job. Great job.

Mary Miller. Hi, Mary. Julia Letlow. Hi, Julia. Claudia Tenney from New York. Claudia—hi, Claudia. Hi. Great job. Nicole Malliotakis. Hi, Nicole. Good. Doing good. I see a great poll with you, Nicole.

Michelle Fischbach, thank you. Great, great job. Ann Wagner, Missouri. Thanks. Sheri Biggs, South Carolina. Thanks, Sheri. Great job. Nancy Mace. Where is Nancy? She is something.

Representative Nancy R. Mace. I love you.

The President. Oh, are—are you a believer in what we're doing, Nancy? Nancy takes it on right from the start. Right?

Rep. Mace. You're damn right. [Laughter]

The President. Would you like to say something? Would you like to say we're doing the right thing?

Rep. Mace. You're doing absolutely the right thing to save all women and girls across the country.

The President. Good.

Rep. Mace. And we cannot thank you enough.

The President. Good.

Rep. Mace. So God bless you and—[inaudible].

The President. Thank you very much. Thank you, Nancy.

Stephanie Bice, Oklahoma—Oklahoma. Thanks, Stephanie. Diana Harshbarger. Thanks, Diana. Good job.

Tim Burchett. Tim, I watched you on television the other day. You were unbelievable. You ripped that guy apart. Man, that poor guy. He started getting a little fresh with Tim, and Tim just ripped him apart. [Laughter] That was beautiful—I actually left a message—

Representative Timothy F. Burchett. I take my orders from Riley Gaines and Marsha Blackburn. [Laughter]

The President. Oh, that's good. [Laughter] Great job, Tim. That was great. [Laughter] Monica De La Cruz. Monica. Great.

Ronny Jackson. Ronny. Dr. Ronny. He was—he's a doctor—a great doctor, a great admiral, and a great Congressman, right? Pretty good. He could—he has his choice. What do you like doing best, Ronny?

Representative Ronny L. Jackson. I like being your doctor best. [Laughter]

The President. Oh, that's—who is the healthiest patient you ever had? [Laughter]

Rep. Jackson. Donald Trump. [Laughter]

The President. You know why I liked him? The fake news asked, "So, Doctor, who is"—he had Obama, Bush, and Trump in the White House—he was the White House doctor. And they asked him, "Who is the healthiest of the three?" He said: "It's not close. It's Donald Trump." And from that moment, I loved this guy. [Laughter] Right? Thank you, Ronny.

Wesley Hunt from Texas. Hi, Wesley. Beth Van Duyne. Beth from Texas. Thanks, Beth. Burgess Owens, a great athlete, NFL star—an NFL star. Ken [Jen; White House correction] Kiggans from Virginia. Thank you. Thank you very—thank you very much, Jen. I appreciate it.

Harriet Hageman, what a lawyer. Ooh. One of the best, one of the most talented lawyers you'll ever see. What she did to her opponent was horrible. [Laughter] Let's see, who was her opponent? Let's see. Ooh, does anybody remember her? But we tend to forget. We forgot that one, huh?

And you know, your Speaker—I'm going to introduce him later anyway, but your Speaker has been fantastic. Stand up, Mike. He's great. What a good man, a really good man.

Also, some friends of our, Sage Steele has been very strong on the issue. Sage, thank you. Thank you very much.

Participant. Behind you.

Participant. Behind you. Other side.

The President. Ah. Thank you. Thank you. Great job.

Tiffany Justice, Tina Descovich, founders of Moms for Liberty. And they were—they honored me, and—and it was a great honor. And thank you very much, both of you. Thank you.

Heather Higgins, Andi Bottner, Victoria Coley from Independent Women's Forum. It's a fantastic group of people that fought very hard on this issue.

I think everybody in this room really fought very hard on this issue.

Kim Fletcher. You know Kim. Debbie—I think Debbie is here—Kraulidis—Kraulidis—from, also, Moms of America.

And Penny Nance, of course, CEO of the Concerned Women for America. That is a lot of people. Thank you very much, Penny. Good job you do. That's a lot of people.

Can I give here—why don't you hold that? We'll—you'll sell it tonight. [Laughter]

So, just to finish up, I'm directing the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is—by the way, is doing a fantastic job. In fact, he just left Panama. We're trying to take back the Panama Canal. Little things like that. It will all happen.

But Marco is going to make clear to—the International Olympic Committee is there, and he's going to make it as clear as anybody can make it 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.

If you went back 10 years or 15 years and you would move forward and listen to this, you'd say: "What the hell are they talking about? This is impossible." [Laughter]

But you have people out there, Democrats, that are still totally in favor. They can't win the argument. They can't win a debate. They look like fools. And they continue to go on.

And it's okay, because as long as they do this—and open borders and all of the other things they talk about—transgender everything. All they want to do is transgender and men playing in women's sports and all of these crazy things.

And if they continue the—I think we're going to end up—ultimately, it's not going to matter, because we're never going to go along with them, and we're just going to keep winning elections. Right, Mike?

Speaker of the House of Representatives J. Michael Johnson. That's right.

The President. So, when the Olympics comes to Los Angeles—I was responsible for getting the Olympics. And I said, "Oh, boy, this is terrible," because I got the Olympics, and I won't be President. And then what happened is that an election—strange things happened in that election. So I missed 4 years, and now I have the Olympics. It was sort of circuitous. It was a circuitous situation.

And we also have the World Cup coming, which is going to be fantastic.

And we have, as you know, very importantly, 250 years coming—that's a big one—next year. So that's a very big one.

But, in Los Angeles, in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. And we're just not going to let it happen, and it's going to end, and 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.

And for the same reason, just to make sure, I'm also directing our Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem—who is also doing out—she's out there with you, Greg—a fantastic job. She's unbelievable. Like, I was watching her riding yesterday on a horse. She was as good as anybody. [Laughter] She's very good—to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the United States while identifying themselves as women athletes. They're trying to get into the games, maybe, where they are unable to get into the games.

We're honored to be joined today by many incredible advocates for women's sports, including the brave swimmer at the forefront of this battle. And Riley Gaines is a person that I've been watching. Yes. Good job. She fought hard.

Riley was a 12-time all-American—wow, that's pretty good—12-time all-American—[laughter]—who sacrificed countless hours in the pool just for a chance at the title that's so important to her. She gave up everything and gave—and just gave everything she had. But then league—the league forced her to share a spot on the podium with a male swimmer who took her trophy while the media celebrated this stolen glory.

And Riley—is just a tremendous athlete, and it was a very unfair situation. I watched it. A lot of people watched it. It was ridiculous, frankly.

But I want to thank Riley. She really has been in the forefront. People that aren't that well versed in this would say that she was the leader. And great job, Riley. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Ms. Gaines. Thank you.

The President. And also with us is another great champion for women, Payton McNabb. In high school, Payton was a rockstar athlete. Where is Payton? Where is—[inaudible] Payton. Nice to see you. Good job.

Independent Women's Forum Ambassador Payton McNabb. Good to see you.

The President. Good job. Looks like a good athlete to me. [Laughter]

In high school, Payton was a rockstar athlete preparing for a future in college sports, but in one volleyball match, a much taller and stronger male spiked the ball right in her face, knocking her unconscious, partially paralyzing her right side, and leaving her with a traumatic brain injury. And Payton said, "It was 100-percent avoidable if only my rights as a female athlete had been more important than a man's feelings." And we can't let it happen, and it's not going to happen.

Not going to happen anymore, Payton. It's not going to happen.

Ms. McNabb. Thank you.

The President. Are you okay? Are you good?

Ms. McNabb. I'm doing a lot better. Thank you.

The President. Good. That's good. Thank you.

We're also pleased to be joined by many incredible leaders on this issue and, as I mentioned before, Speaker Mike Johnson, and he—he has been so strong on this issue, because he's a man of common sense. I mean, it really is. It's common sense more than anything else. So, Mike, thank you. Great job. Great job in everything.

He's got the easiest job of any politician in history. He's got the nicest, like, 200-and-almost-20—it sort of varies between—depends on how many people I take for my administration. [Laughter] It goes up and down a little bit, but I promised I won't take anymore. I just wanted to see how good he was. I was testing you. [Laughter]

We have some great people, but he's filling them up rapidly. He had some big wins the other day—very big wins the other day. But you've done a fantastic job. Thank you very much, Mike. We appreciate it. We all appreciate it.

And, also, the dozens of Members of the House and Senate and Governors that we—attorney generals—so many people, and there are people outside that can't even get in. This room is packed.

And, you know, I offered to build a ballroom. I'm very good at building ballrooms. [Laughter] I build beautiful ballrooms, and I actually offered to build a ballroom for the White House. I was going to build it right there. This was going to be the reception room. And then I was going to build a beautiful, beautiful ballroom like I have at Mar-a-Lago, as beautiful as it can be. It was going to cost about $100 million. I offered to do it, and I never heard back. [Laughter] I offered this—I offered to do it to the Biden administration—very active administration—[laughter]—and they didn't—I didn't hear back.

And I said again and again. Three or four times, I said to top people, and they just didn't know what to do. [Laughter] They sort of said, "This is good, but we"—they had no idea.

So I'm going to try and make the offer to myself, you know? [Laughter] Because we could use a bigger room. Right, Marsha? We could use a bigger room.

"President, would you like to build?" Yes, I would. We could use at the White House. It's—it would actually be a beautiful addition. It's going to cost nothing. I'll spend the whole thing myself, but we'll do a big, beautiful room. But we could use it at the White House.

You know what they do when they have a big ceremony? They put up a tent. And somehow, I think we've outgrown the tent stuff, right? Don't you think?

Audience members. Yes.

Participant. Build the ballroom.

The President. So we'll see if they can—we'll see if Trump will approve it. [Laughter]

But the actions we're taking today are the latest in a sweeping effort to reclaim our culture and our laws from the radical left crusade against biological reality.

On day one, I made it official, and I'm making it official policy of the United States Government that there is a—you know, two genders. We have two genders. What might they be?

Audience members. Male.

The President. Man——

Audience member. Female.

The President. ——and woman, right? Male and female. Male and female. Can't think of too many others, but it's pretty amazing.

I rescinded Federal funds to—and this is so important—to any program that promotes transgender ideology using taxpayer dollars. We're not going to do it. We're not going to do it.

And last week, I effectively banned the chemical castration and surgical mutilation of minor children. Can you believe I even have to say that? That I banned—Governor, I banned—that's just like—who would ever think we have to even say that? "Last week, I banned"—every day we're ending the extremism of the last 4 years. We have other things that are just as ridiculous—not having to do with this subject, but just as ridiculous. Open borders, where people are allowed to pour in from all over the world—from jails and prisons and mental institutions and insane asylums—people that are very sick, people that are very evil; killers, murderers. Many of them murdered more than one person. And we have to justify the fact that we're moving them out.

We are moving them out in tremendous numbers. Tom Homan and Kristi are doing a fantastic job, but—and the Governor and other Governors too. But we're—that we have to even fight for this stuff is just incredible. And the media doesn't want to talk about it, because it's nothing they can talk about. It's just—they just don't want to really talk very much about it. Serious problem, but we're doing a great job.

And the people understand, and that's why we won in a landslide. You know, it's—they made it easy. And at some point, you know, we have to hope they do come around, because we can never let this happen again. What's happened to our country, we can never let this happen again.

So we are restoring sanity and common sense, very simply, to our Government. We're defending the rights and safety and pride of the American people, including our great, great, great female athletes. What athletes you are too, I'll tell you. Great athletes. [Inaudible]

And you know, I'm not allowed to say this politically. It could end my career. They're really beautiful people. [Laughter] These are beautiful people. But you know, like everything else, it's a little bit different today. You're not allowed to say that, because if you call a woman or a girl beautiful, that's the end of your career. But let's take a chance on it, Mike. [Laughter] Let's take a chance.

So I'm going to—I want to thank everybody for being here. It's fantastic. And this is sort of a big, big day. It shouldn't have even been necessary to take place. This started a long time ago, and we ended it today. And I'm going to sign the Executive order right now, and everything I said will go into effect immediately. Okay? Thank you.

You know, if you'd like to gather around me, I think I'm going to be okay. Come on. Come on. Hello.

Secret Service is worried about them? [Laughter] If we have to worry about them, we have big problems.

Okay. Do you want to have—do you want to do this? Watch. Watch what I do, and then I'm going to give you some pens. Okay? Are you ready? What a nice picture this is, huh, Governor?

You ready? We'll do a good job. Wait. Let me press that.

[At this point, the President signed the Executive order.]

I want to make this a really good signature, because this is—you know, this is a big one, right?

Oh, I think we have a 10. We have a 10. [Laughter]

Participant. God bless you, Mr. President.

The President. Pretty good, huh? Hi, sweetheart. Okay? Good. Now you're going to go out and win those events, right?

Participant. Yes.

The President. Nice to see you all. [Inaudible]

Participant. Thank you.

The President. Great going, everybody.

Audience members. Thank you!

The President. Thank you, kids. Here. Take a pen.

Participant. Thank you.

The President. I'll give some of these out. Okay? Take a pen, take a pen.

Participant. Thank you so much.

The President. Where is—where is Riley?