Trump threatens to pull funding for all California schools over transgender policies

US president Donald Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from California school districts that do not adhere to his administration’s transgender policies, after the state refused to ban trans girls from female sports.

On Thursday (21 August) Trump, who has enacted a raft of anti-trans executive orders since returning to the White House, wrote on his official account on his Truth Social platform: “Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Trump did not provide any further details about the alleged funding cuts.

It is latest escalation in the Republican president’s on-going fight with the staunchly blue state and its Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, over trans inclusion.

The battle between the Trump administration and California arose after AB Hernandez, a 16-year-old trans junior at Jurupa Valley High School, became the centre of conservative ire for qualifying for the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Champions. 

Hernandez’s school was subject to protests by right-wingers and Trump even attacked her himself on his Truth Social account, writing that she is “transitioned Male athlete” who is “practically unbeatable”.

“THIS IS NOT FAIR, AND TOTALLY DEMEANING TO WOMEN AND GIRLS,” the president raved. “Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to.”

The executive order in question, entitled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, was signed by Trump in February and declared federal funding would be pulled from educational institutions that did not segregate sports based on “biological sex”.

The order stated it would henceforth be the “policy of the United States […] to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity and truth”.

In July, the Trump administration announced it would be suing California, after the state’s Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) refused to comply with his demands and changed its rules to support trans athletes like Hernandez rather than ban them.

The new policy states that cisgender athletes who narrowly missed out on qualifying for the event, due to the alleged inclusion of a transgender athlete, are now offered the chance to compete.

In the lawsuit, the Justice Department claimed California’s trans athlete policies violate Title IX, a landmark piece of anti-discrimination law which bans discrimination in education based on sex.

In the lawsuit, the department said California’s policies “are not only illegal and unfair but also demeaning, signalling to girls that their opportunities and achievements are secondary to accommodating boys”.

It added the rules “ignore undeniable biological differences between boys and girls, in favor of an amorphous ’gender identity”.