Trump rails against trans athletes in women’s sports at campaign rally in Virginia

The Virginia College swim team joined former President Donald Trump on stage Saturday night as he rallied his supporters and called for a ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

Speaking to a crowd in Salem, Virginia, the seat of Roanoke County, Trump criticized the “radical left” for their “transgender madness” – a particularly personal issue for athletes from nearby Roanoke College.

In October 2023, a transgender swimmer who competed on the men’s team a year earlier joined the women’s team after transitioning. encouraging female athletes to sound the alarm due to being forced to compete against a teammate with a potential advantage.

“The brave members of the swim team stood up against transgender bigots,” Trump told the crowd.

Seven members of the women’s team, all wearing pink hot dog shirts with the slogan “Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports,” joined the Republican nominee on stage, where team captain Lilly Mullens praised Trump for supporting their cause.

“We know that men have an inherent advantage over women in sports, but due to current policies, men compete against women of all ages in all sports,” Mullens said.

“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stood up and insisted that this gender discrimination against women continues across the country, and it is completely unfair,” Mullens said.

In addition to discussing the issue of transgender athletes in women’s sports, Trump also repeated warnings from earlier campaign stop in North Carolina about the looming economic crisis under Harris’ leadership.

“The Kamala economy has been declared to be depressed,” he said, citing the latest jobs report, which showed the U.S. adding just 12,000 jobs in October. lowest total since 2020.