Trump threatens to withhold California’s federal funding over transgender athlete – NBC Los Angeles
- President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over a transgender athlete’s participation in ladies’s sports activities.
- Trump stated that he would converse with California Gov. Gavin Newsom “to search out out which means he needs to go” on the difficulty.
- It is the newest menace from Trump to withhold federal funding from a state or establishment whose insurance policies he opposes.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to strip “giant scale federal funding” from California if the state goes towards his govt order banning transgender athletes from collaborating in ladies’s sports activities.
That funding may very well be withheld “completely” if California continues to flout the Feb. 5 order, Trump warned on Reality Social.
The president’s publish complained {that a} trans athlete who certified to compete towards ladies in an upcoming competitors is “virtually unbeatable.”
He wrote that he’ll order “native authorities, if mandatory, to not enable the transitioned individual to compete within the State Finals.”
Trump added that he’ll converse with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, later Tuesday “to search out out which means he needs to go” on the difficulty.
Trump didn’t identify the athlete whose participation in ladies’s sports activities drew his ire. AB Hernandez, a California highschool scholar and transgender athlete competing in women monitor and discipline, has just lately acquired media consideration.
Trump’s menace to close off federal funding may very well be vital for California, the world’s fourth-largest economic system.
Over one-third of the state’s funds comes from the federal authorities, based on the California Finances and Coverage Heart. The state’s 2025-2026 funds contains greater than $170 billion in federal funds.
The menace additionally carries weight in mild of Trump’s rising willingness to cancel billions of {dollars} in federal funds to universities, cities and different entities whose whose conduct he opposes.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump moved to cancel all remaining federal authorities contracts with Harvard College — reportedly totaling roughly $100 million — within the administration’s newest salvo towards the elite establishment.
Trump has beforehand threatened to withhold federal funds from Maine over the state’s compliance with Trump’s govt order barring transgender ladies and women from collaborating in feminine sports activities.
Newsom, extensively seen as a contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has been a vocal critic of quite a few Trump insurance policies, together with on tariffs and immigration.
He downplayed the controversy over trans athletes in April, saying the difficulty has been “weaponized by the precise to be 10x, 100x greater than it’s.”
However he additionally recommended in March that trans athletes collaborating in women’ and girls’s sports activities was “deeply unfair,” separating himself from lots of his fellow Democrats.
“I believe it is a problem of equity. I utterly agree with you on that,” Newsom advised conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on his podcast.
Newsom’s workplace didn’t instantly present a remark in response to Trump’s publish.
