The State of California, which seeks potentially hundreds of billions of dollars from the Trump administration, is also planning to defy President Donald Trump’s ban on men in women’s sports, among other presidential directives.
On Wednesday, as President Trump signed an executive order banning the participation of biological males in women’s sports, and directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to deny visas to transgender athletes, California sports institutions pushed back, saying that state law allowed participation according to chosen gender identity.
The San Francisco Chronicle noted:
The California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports in the state, said that organization “provides students with the opportunity to belong, connect, and compete in education-based experiences in compliance with California law.” The state education code says that students are allowed to participate in school programs and extracurriculars, including sports, consistent with their gender identity.
The CIF does not collect data on how many trans student athletes are participating in sports in the state. The group said it will continue to follow state law even with an executive order that directly opposes the California education code.
The Chronicle added that Governor Gavin Newsom, who is in Washington to ask for federal aid for recent wildfires, tried to keep a low profile on the issue, and to downplay its significance, as he has done when confronted in the past.
But Attorney General Rob Bonta has been aggressive in responding to Trump’s transgender policies in general. On Wednesday, he warned a children’s hospital in Los Angeles against complying with a Trump executive order that bans the use of drugs and surgery to promote gender transitions in children — treatments that are increasingly controversial worldwide, because they may be irreversible and children may not be able to give informed consent.
Meanwhile, after Trump criticized California’s high-speed rail project as wasteful and corrupt, and said that he would oversee an investigation into its use of federal funds, the project pushed back, calling his comments simply “noise.” (The “bullet train” did not explain why it would no longer connect San Francisco and Los Angeles in three hours.)
Ignore the noise. We’re busy building. 🚧
— CA High-Speed Rail 🚄💨 (@CaHSRA) February 4, 2025
As we enter the track-laying phase, 171 miles are under active construction & we’ve already:
✅ COMPLETED 50 major structures
✅ COMPLETED 60 miles of guideway
✅ COMPLETED full enviro clearance from SF to LA
✅ CREATED 14,600 jobs pic.twitter.com/esbk0Gespb
Newsom has yet to make a decision on whether to veto $50 million in state spending to fight Trump administration policies — spending that he urged the legislature to pass but which could complicate his requests for federal aid.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
