Trump repeats threats to California over transgender track state champion
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump targeted California's education funding again after a transgender student won two high school track and field events at the state meet Sunday.
AB Hernandez, 16, became the center of political controversy overnight because she is transgender and running in girls track and field in California.
Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the state of California in a May 27 Truth Social post prior to the meet because of her presence and issued a similar threat for 'large scale fines' Tuesday after she was crowned a California state champion in girls triple jump and high jump.
The California Interscholastic Federation adopted regulations in 2013 allowing students to engage in high school sports 'in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student's records.' The same year, California lawmakers codified into state law that students could participate in school programs consistent with their gender identity.
After Trump's May 27 threat, the CIF changed its rules to allow the athlete with the next-best qualifying mark in three events to participate and to issue a duplicate medal to the next-best finisher behind Hernandez in those events.
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon threatened legal action Monday against California public schools if they continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in accordance with their gender identity.
The attack on California's education funding over transgender girls' participation in girls' sports teams came as little surprise after the Justice Department filed suit against Maine in April for a similar policy.
The White House argues policies like those in California and Maine are discriminatory, and therefore allow it to terminate federal K-12 funding to those states. Trump ordered investigations into all three, but has moved more swiftly in its dispute with Maine, whose governor publicly challenged Trump over the policy.
Several education policy researchers and attorneys previously told the Chronicle that Maine is a test case, intended to see whether the Trump administration can subvert the normal process for cutting funds — as well as terminate all education funding to a state, rather than a more targeted cut.
The Education Department is investigating California, Minnesota and Oregon's high school athletic associations, individual school districts in Oregon and Washington, the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University for allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams consistent with their gender identities. The Education Department confirmed Tuesday that it has opened an investigation into a Connecticut school system for allowing transgender athletes to compete on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
California received about $8 billion in federal funding for K-12 education in the 2024-25 school year, about 6% of its total budget, according to the state Department of Education. Of that, $2.5 billion was for low-income students under Title I, $1.5 billion for special education and students with disabilities, $157 million for English as a second language programs, and $5.7 million for nutritional services.
To terminate funding, the Trump administration will need to argue that allowing athletics participation based on gender identity rather than sex assigned at birth violates Title IX.
Several federal courts have found the opposite: that if a school tells a transgender athlete they can't participate in certain sports or use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity, it is discriminating against that student on the basis of sex.
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