Don’t let them play you for a sucker. It’s not about protecting athletes. It’s not about protecting women. The so-called “problem” of transgender athletes dominating women’s sports is a ruse. The Trump administration is sportswashing: Using athletics to distract people from its cascade of executive actions on trade, immigration, U.S. foreign aid and more.
President Trump wants you to feel angry about boys taking girls’ roster spots, which is extremely unlikely, so you don’t get angry about millions of toddlers dying because he cut off their aid, which is very likely. He wants you to believe that in pushing the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) to ban transgender women from Olympic sports, as it did this week, he secured a victory for everyday Americans. That way, you won’t think too much about the everyday Americans who will lose health insurance and food aid because of his “big, beautiful bill.” The USOPC’s policy change, quietly updated in a small section of its “Athlete Safety Policy,” removes the decision-making power from the national governing bodies of each sport and requires them to comply with Trump’s executive order. The committee’s previous policy was based on “real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology.”
