Donald Trump claims WNBA stars will 'destroy themselves' amid US anthem and 'trans girls' controversies

Donald Trump has claimed that WNBA players will “destroy themselves” amid players exiting the court during the US national anthem, and received pushback from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for his actions towards “trans girls in sports.”

Trump’s call to boycott came after the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries left the court persistently throughout the WNBA Finals, which the President addressed at a rally.

While claiming that athletes in the league could “destroy themselves,” Trump compared their actions to when kneeling protests against racism became commonplace in the NFL, then across wider sports.

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Donald Trump calls for boycott of WNBA amid US anthem controversy

ABC previously reported that by walking off the court during the national anthem, WNBA players aren’t violating any rules as “the protocols were suspended years ago.”

Still, Trump believes his supporters should boycott the women’s league, noting that an alleged decline in NFL viewership led to the cessation of kneeling protests.

“The NFL did that for a while. They stopped because people stopped watching the games. So I think you should do the same thing with women’s basketball unless they get going,” said the President.

“What’s going on with the women’s NBA? What’s that all about? You know, they’ll destroy themselves before they get started because they’re just starting to do good.

“It’s a big deal. They leave the court when the national anthems play,” continued Trump, who then brought up Caitlin Clark as an exemplary athlete that has helped to grow the WNBA.

Clark, widely regarded as the best women’s basketballer in the world, has never publicly declared an affiliation with the Republican party; however, Trump has taken a shine to the Indiana Fever star.

The Fever are one of the few teams, and the Minnesota Lynx, to have stayed on the floor this season, when the anthem is playing, in the WNBA.

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Donald Trump receives scathing pushback from political opponent Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for stance on ‘trans girls in sports’

Trump’s opinions on the WNBA aren’t limited to athletes walking off the court during the anthem. The President has also injected himself into the ongoing debate about the presence of ‘trans girls in sports,’ and received pushback from political opponent Ocasio-Cortez who alleged that Trump is trying to “shred the constitution."

The President has made the lives of transgender athletes increasingly difficult, dating back to February 2025 when he signed an executive order titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.’

That order threatened federal funding freezes at schools that allowed transgender girls and women to compete on female teams.

Additionally, one of Clark’s team-mates at the Fever, Sophie Cunningham, recently drew headlines for a series of ‘anti-trans’ comments, provoking support from Trump at a rally earlier in October.

“You have a lot of men wanting to go and watch her. She’s beautiful,” said the President. “You’re not allowed to say that anymore, however, as a politician.

“Please, please, let me take it back. Anytime a politician says a woman is beautiful, that’s generally the end of his political career [today].”

In response to Trump’s words and actions towards transgender women in sports, Ocasio-Cortez claimed that the President’s stance isn’t about “trans girls… it’s about girls.”

“When they want to focus on trans girls in sports, it’s not just about trans girls in sports. This is about girls, all girls in education. It’s about attacking Title IX,” stated Ocasio-Cortez.

Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and education programmes that receive federal funding.

“What the Trump administration is doing in targeting trans people is to get everyone on board with supporting defunding their own civil rights in going to college, university, what have you.

“When they attack trans girls in sports, they’re also attacking all women’s ability to stand up against their abusers, their rapists, and their assaulters on campuses across America. It’s very important for all of us to understand and to feel and to know that our fight is united.

“I don’t support the rights of trans people just to protect my own rights, but I support the rights of trans women because I’m a girl’s girl. And I think that all of our bodily autonomy is tied together.

“But what we’re not going to do is shred our Constitution, kill Title IX, and defund all of our healthcare just to attack 3% of the U.S. population,” concluded Ocasio-Cortez.

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