Former President Donald Trump weighed in on the polarizing debate about transgender athletes on Wednesday, an issue that has engulfed San Jose State’s volleyball team, saying if he’s elected he’ll use an executive order to outlaw transgender competitors at all levels.
“You just ban it,” Trump said during a town hall that aired Wednesday on “The Faulkner Focus” on Fox News Channel. “The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen. Not a big deal.”
Trump took a variety of questions from an all-women’s audience during the hour-long “Women’s Issues” special that was recorded on Tuesday in Georgia. The topic of transgender athletes came up when one of the audience members said she was concerned for her granddaughters’ safety in locker rooms and with sports teams.
While Trump did not specifically name San Jose State during the town hall, he appeared to point to a play in the Spartans’ home match against San Diego State on Oct. 10.
With the Spartans trailing 22-12 in the second set of a three-set sweep, a SJSU player spiked a ball that, in a somewhat common occurrence in the sport, caromed off the upper body of an Aztec player and sent her to the floor. The player not only kept the play alive with the bump, but got up immediately and made another bump before SJSU ultimately earned the point.
Video of the play surface with headlines suggesting the SDSU player was hit in the face. Trump appeared to be referencing that play during the town hall.
“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump said. “Other people, even in volleyball, they’ve been really hurt badly. Women playing men… but we stop it. We absolutely stop it.”
San Diego State officials responded Wednesday by saying their player was not hit in the face or injured on the play.
“This did not happen,” SDSU director of athletic communications Jamie McConeghy said in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle. “The ball hit her in the shoulder. She was uninjured and did not miss a play.”
According to the Chronicle, which has video of the play, SDSU has “called for multiple corrections from media outlets.”
San Jose State player Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit earlier this month and said she has a transgender teammate who, she contended, has physical advantages over other women athletes. This news organization is not identifying the player named in the lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, SJSU’s Slusser said her transgender teammate hits harder and jumps higher than the rest of those on the team, suggesting the teammate’s spikes reach speeds upwards of 80 MPH. Slusser said in the lawsuit that earlier this season her teammate “smashed the ball into the face of a woman on the University of Delaware team’s back line, knocking the opposing player to the ground.”
Four schools have refused to play the San Jose State women’s volleyball team for unspecified reasons, and a fifth school – Nevada – still might. Wolf Pack players announced Monday on a conservative web site that they refuse to play the Spartans in their match scheduled for Oct. 26 in Reno as a stand against “any match that advances injustice against female athletes.” The university announced several hours later that it didn’t support the players’ stance and intends to host the match.
Monday night Slusser, via the social media platform X, saluted the Wolf Pack players for voicing their objections about playing the match against the Spartans.
Slusser wrote: “Round of applause to the girls of the @NevadaWolfPack volleyball team. Deciding to go against what the school was forcing on you as young women and taking a stand for what you believe takes courage! Another great step in the right direction for women’s sports!”
The Spartans are 9-3 overall and 4-3 in Mountain West play. SJSU has lost the past three matches it has played, including the SDSU match. They are scheduled to play at New Mexico on Thursday and at Air Force on Saturday.