The Trump administration is pausing over $175,000,000 in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) over its policies conflicting with a directive banning men from competing in women’s sports, according to an announcement from the president’s rapid response X account.
The announcement stated the decision was made due to the school’s “policies forcing women to compete with men in sports,” according to the post. The paused funds were provided by the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women’s swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room,” a White House official told the DCNF. “This is NOT the result of the Title IX investigation launched by the Department of Education. This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities. The federal funding paused was from DOD and HHS.”
UPenn first stirred chaos when it allowed male athlete Lia Thomas, who claims he is a woman, to compete on the women’s swim team. Thomas went on to beat female records at the 2022 NCAA championships. Several athletes that competed on the women’s team with Thomas have since filed a lawsuit for being forced to compete against and change in front of the man.
BREAKING: The Trump Administration has “paused $175 million in federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania” over its policies forcing women to compete with men in sports.
Promises made, promises kept. pic.twitter.com/o4yiiqtH9d
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 19, 2025
A UPenn spokesman told the DCNF the school had not yet received an official notification of the funding suspension but insisted “Penn has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams.”
“We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply to not only Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions,” the spokesman said.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 banning men from competing in women’s sports under Title IX, and further directing the Department of Education to investigate any school that violates the order. The president later doubled down by demanding the NCAA reinstate women’s records that were wiped away by male athletes.
This is not the first instance in which the administration has revoked federal funding from universities, as Columbia University received similar treatment after it allegedly failed to protect Jewish students from harassment and discrimination on campus.
Several female athletes have been injured after being forced to compete against males, such as 19-year-old Payton McNabb, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after a male athlete claiming to be a transgender female spiked a volleyball into her head. McNabb was invited to be the president’s guest at his first joint address to Congress in his second term.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a comment from the University of Pennsylvania.
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