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- During his speech at CPAC, Trump took aim at transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
- “If this does not change, women’s sports as we know it will die,” Trump said.
- Many US states are weighing legislation that would restrict transgender youth from competing in sports.
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During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Sunday, former President Donald Trump said women’s sports will “die” if trans athletes are allowed to compete.
“Joe Biden and the Democrats are even pushing policies that would destroy women sports,” Trump said, apparently in reference to the Equality Act, which seeks to expand protections for the LGBTQ community and was passed in the House last week.
“A lot of new records are being broken in women’s sports – hate to say that ladies – but got a lot of new records that are being shattered.”
While referring to weightlifting, Trump said “every ounce is like a big deal for many years,” as he pretended to lift an invisible bar. “All of a sudden somebody comes along and beats it by a hundred pounds,” he said.
Trump continued: “Young girls and women are incensed that they are now being forced to compete against those who are biological males. It’s not good for women. it’s not good for women’s sports which worked for so long and so hard to get to where they are.”
"What coach, as an example, wants to recruit a young woman to compete if her record can easily be broken by somebody who was born a man?" Trump asked.
He added, "If this does not change, women's sports as we know it will die."
Trump spoke during the final day of the conservative conference in Orlando, Florida, in his first public speech since leaving the White House last month.
Many US states are currently considering legislation that would restrict the participation of transgender youth in sports.
However, such bills could contradict an executive order signed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office that reversed Trump's definition of gender as the one a person was assigned at birth.