ESPN Mocked For Tweet On President Donald Trump’s Executive Order Banning Men From Women’s Sports

That’s one way to frame it…

Of course the issue of transgender women, or biological males, competing in women’s supports has been one of the biggest hot-button issues in politics for the past couple of years.

The conversation really seemed to come to the forefront back in 2021, when one of the top collegiate women’s swimmers was a biological male named Lia Thomas, who had transitioned to female after previously competing on the men’s swim team at Penn.

University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines became an outspoken critic of the NCAA for allowing a biological male to compete against women, and received a fair amount of criticism for her position (to put it mildly).

Of course in this day and age if you take the common sense position that men shouldn’t be competing in women’s sports you’re labeled “transphobic” or a bigot, but that’s just where we are these days. And last summer, several prominent figures in sports media actually spoke out and defended women’s sports after the controversy surrounding Olympic boxer Imane Khelif, with both Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee coming out in support of keeping biological men out of women’s sports.

Well after President Donald Trump was elected, he promised to take action to protect women’s sports – and today, he did just that.

This afternoon, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports by ordering federal agencies to interpret Title IX rules as prohibiting biological males from participating in any female sports categories.

The president signed the order surrounded by female athletes, including Riley Gaines, after pointing out just some of the insanity that’s come from allowing men to compete in women’s sports:

“Female athletes have been forced onto the front lines, and men claiming to be girls have stolen more than 3,500 victories. That’s a lot, and invaded more than 11,000 competitions designed for women. Last year, a male cyclist posing as a woman competed in the 800 mile Arizona Trail race, a very big deal in cycling, and obliterated the women’s course record by nearly 5.5 hours. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it, huh? 5.5 hours.

But you have to hear the weightlifting records. You think that’s bad, the weightlifting’s worse. In 2023, a man in women’s powerlifting broke two world records and outlifted his closest female opponent in one event by 440 pounds.”

But ESPN had their own spin on the whole thing. In a tweet announcing the executive order, the “worldwide leader in sports” reported that the president planned to sign an executive order to “prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth” from participating in women’s sports.

President Donald Trump will sign an executive order Wednesday designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women's or girls' sporting events. https://t.co/57XwdjyIy9

— ESPN (@espn) February 5, 2025

I mean, that’s one way to put it I guess, but wouldn’t it have been simpler to just say “men?”

Well the network was quickly mocked for going out of their way to be as politically correct as possible:

Didn’t ESPN get the memo? The days of woke gender identity politics are OVER.

There’s no such thing as “people who were biologically assigned male at birth.”

They are men.

And allowing them to compete against women is wrong. https://t.co/ZtrVWfEgam

— Tommy Tuberville (@TTuberville) February 5, 2025

"People who were biologically assigned male at birth" is moron for "biological males." https://t.co/yeLOGha1tQ

— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 5, 2025

ESPN is disgusting for this headline. “Biologically assigned male at birth” you mean born a fucking man? Trans people should have all the rights they deserve, but playing sports against women ain’t one of em. PROTECT WOMENS SPORTS!!!! https://t.co/dqw4aU9Aco

— Rocky Miyares (@Big_Daddy_R) February 5, 2025

Honestly, why the tortured language to describe being born male or female?

You’re supposed to do sports, ESPN. Go do sports. https://t.co/0F82JQOR0D

— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) February 5, 2025

If only there were a word to describe "people who were biologically assigned male at birth" https://t.co/WHLFYPKbbC

— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) February 5, 2025

ESPN was assigned the job of reporting the news, but they identify as propaganda. https://t.co/dSydWvZuxg

— Andrew T. Walker (@andrewtwalk) February 5, 2025

And ESPN also took to hiding some of the replies on their tweet that supported the executive order, like these that were hidden:

sounds like this is a good thing for any biological women competing rather than having men who wanted to cheat, still not sure why this isnt left to the head of the sports themselves to decide.

— Dylan BluD (@BluDYT) February 5, 2025

Men should not compete against women in certain sports or hanging out in locker rooms. This is not controversial

— Australian Nick (@AlphaAussieNick) February 5, 2025

Yes, preventing men from competing against women. This isn’t that difficult to understand, ESPN. It never should have gotten to this point where a presidential EO was required to restore some common sense to sports.

— Andrew Treadway (@andrewt29) February 5, 2025

The Trump rapid response team even took ESPN to task for their tortured language in reporting on the executive order:

Men.

They're called "men." https://t.co/oEIBduJYGt

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 5, 2025

Stick to sports, ESPN, because we see what happens when you try to take positions on social issues.