The Trump administration says it’s cutting $175 million in funding to the University of Pennsylvania over policies allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.
White House officials wrote in an email to CBS Philadelphia that the funding cut is connected to Lia Thomas, a transgender woman and former Penn swimmer who made headlines and drew backlash when she competed for the women’s swimming team.
“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. This is NOT the result of the Title IX investigation launched by the Department of Education,” a senior White House official wrote in the email.
Thomas came in first in the 500-meter freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships and had other top finishes in events at the Ivy League Championships that year.
Some women swimmers disputed those wins. A lawsuit filed in a Massachusetts federal court seeks to have her records removed from the record books. Separately, the Education Department launched a Title IX investigation into Penn allowing Thomas to compete on the women’s swimming team.
At the time, NCAA regulations allowed for trans women to compete on teams that aligned with their gender identity. Trump undid those protections in an executive order signed in February.
A senior White House official said in an email that the funding is an “immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams to those universities.” The funding that was paused came from the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services.
A Penn spokesperson said the Philadelphia-based university is aware of media reports and social media posts about the funding being pulled, but has received no formal notice from the White House.
“We are aware of media reports suggesting a suspension of $175 million in federal funding to Penn, but have not yet received any official notification or any details,” the spokesperson said in an email. “It is important to note, however, that 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.”
Wednesday morning, the White House’s @RapidResponse47 account shared a clip from Fox Business on X on the news.
The White House official said Wednesday’s action is separate from an Education Department investigation into Penn over alleged violations of Title IX, a 1972 law barring sex discrimination in education.
City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes Penn’s campus, denounced the decision in a statement.
“These funds have nothing to do with transgender student athletes — this is nothing more than a hollow pretext to target our community,” Gauthier’s statement said in part. “What Trump is really doing is threatening tens of thousands of jobs, our hospitals, lifesaving research projects, educational programs for underserved youth, and so much more.”
Gauthier added that some prior actions from the Trump administration have not held up to lawsuits and that she is proud that many transgender Philadelphians call her district home.
“They make our community stronger and a better place to live. I will always stand with them,” Gauthier said.
Gauthier also said the move is not about athletics but about attacking Philadelphia.
“I believe this is about President Trump trying to attack Democratic cities like Philadelphia. He understands we are an ‘eds and meds’ economy and he’s trying to take aim at the city. This is meant to divide us,” she said.
Trump graduated from The Wharton School at Penn in 1968, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper.
