Trump Cracks That ‘size Does Matter’ As He Confuses Gender-war Sports Rhetoric In Ramble To Navy Football Team

President Donald Trump delivered a meandering reside astatine nan White House Friday while presenting nan Commander-in-Chief’s trophy to nan U.S. Navy Midshipmen shot team.

Standing earlier nan burly Navy shot players, Trump mixed up his ain sports gender-wars rhetoric earlier going connected a agelong tangent denouncing transgender group successful women’s sports, a taxable connected which Trump regularly harps.

Calling up to nan podium nan team’s co-captain, Landon Robinson, Trump many times gripped and playfully patted nan 6-foot-tall, 287-pound protect lineman, earlier cracking, “His arms are for illustration steel. I conscionable wounded my hand.”

Then he oddly weaved into comments astir gender and sports. “What astir women playing successful men's sports? Think we could person a female return your position?” Trump asked Robinson, earlier seeming to benignant retired his oft-repeated anti-transgender message. “These Democrats support pushing these things, unfastened borders, transgender for everybody, and they want to person men playing women's sports.”

And arsenic he introduced nan team, Trump first lauded his ain efforts to let subject deferments of work truthful that apical players tin subordinate nan NFL earlier completing their commitments. “They person nan champion bosom successful nan business,” he said. “But size does matter, and truthful what we did is we sewage that truthful you person a deferment, truthful a batch of group are capable to subordinate now, and they do their work later.”

The president has pushed for nan Senate to walk nan SAVE America Act and to see provisions successful it that would prohibition transgender athletes from participating successful women’s sports. Republicans are erstwhile again hoping that they tin make it an rumor that resonates pinch voters successful nan 2026 midterm elections nan measurement that it did successful nan 2024 statesmanlike predetermination erstwhile Trump ran his “Kamala is for They/Them” ad.

Trump besides bragged that erstwhile he attended nan game, cipher booed him — arsenic is nan lawsuit pinch astir sporting events he attends.

“But they couldn't find immoderate personification [who booed] astatine that game,” Trump said of his sum from nan game. “That was immoderate game.”

The president besides said that galore of nan players will beryllium commissioned arsenic officers and tied it into his subject ventures successful Iran and Venezuela.

“We person nan top subject successful nan world, nan strongest, nan greatest,” he said. “The United States Navy, nan Marines, nan full military. We person nan top successful nan world. I was truthful proud of what I did.”

And he folded successful comments astir nan existent warfare successful Iran.

“The world has seen nan existent spot and mightiness of our sailors and aviators arsenic they fought successful 1 of nan astir analyzable and successful subject operations of each clip against nan Iranian regime,” Trump said. “And it's amazing. It's not, I don't want to get excessively crazy here, not a contest. It's not moreover a contest.”

A cardinal plank for nan president pinch respect to nan subject academies has focused connected trying to power nan NCAA assemblage shot schedule to prohibit different teams from playing during nan yearly Army-Navy game, which nan president attends.

“Nobody's playing football, not Ohio State against Notre Dame, not LSU against Alabama,” Trump insisted successful his remarks. “Nobody's going to play shot for 4 hours during that very typical clip of nan twelvemonth successful December.”