Trump threatens to withhold California’s federal investment over transgender athlete

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to strip “large scale federal funding” from California if the state is going in opposition to his govt order banning transgender athletes from collaborating in ladies’s sports activities.

That investment might be withheld “permanently” if California continues to flout the Feb. 5 order, Trump warned on Truth Social.

The president’s submit complained {that a} trans athlete who certified to compete in opposition to ladies in an upcoming pageant is “practically unbeatable.”

He wrote that he’s going to order “local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals.”

Trump added that he’s going to talk with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, later Tuesday “to find out which way he wants to go” at the factor.

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 box, has not too long ago gained media consideration.

Trump’s danger to close off federal investment might be vital for California, the international’s fourth-largest economic system.

Over one-third of the state’s finances comes from the government, consistent with the California Budget and Policy Center. The state’s 2025-2026 finances contains greater than $170 billion in federal budget.

The danger additionally carries weight in mild of Trump’s expanding willingness to cancel billions of bucks in federal budget to universities, towns and different entities whose whose behavior he opposes.

Earlier Tuesday, Trump moved to cancel all ultimate federal executive contracts with Harvard University — reportedly totaling more or less $100 million — within the management’s newest salvo in opposition to the elite establishment.

Trump has up to now threatened to withhold federal budget from Maine over the state’s compliance with Trump’s govt order barring transgender ladies and ladies from collaborating in feminine sports activities.

Newsom, broadly observed as a contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, has been a vocal critic of a lot of Trump insurance policies, together with on price lists and immigration.

He downplayed the talk over trans athletes in April, announcing the problem has been “weaponized by the right to be 10x, 100x bigger than it is.”

But he additionally steered in March that trans athletes collaborating in women’ and ladies’s sports activities was once “deeply unfair,” isolating himself from lots of his fellow Democrats.

“I think it’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom instructed conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on his podcast.

Newsom’s place of work didn’t instantly supply a remark in keeping with Trump’s submit.