Donald Trump left members of a top Italian football team confused after ranting at them about trans athletes.
During a visit to the White House on Wednesday (18 June), while in the US for the Club World Cup, Juventus stars had to endure an awkward few minutes, during which the president asked for their views about transgender sportsmen and women.
After briefly mentioning “men playing in women’s sports”, Trump turned to the footballers and asked: “Could a woman make your team, fellas? Tell me, you think?”
When none of the squad answered, Juve’s general manager Damien Comolli replied: “We have a very good women’s team,” prompting Trump to say: “You do have it but they should be playing with women. It’s one of those things. See, they’re very diplomatic.
Trump asks the Juventus players standing behind him if women could make their team and tries to bait them into endorsing his transphobia pic.twitter.com/cJymDAmcSd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 18, 2025
Winger Timothy Weah, who was born in New York and has played for the US national team 44 times, later told reporters that the experience was “a bit weird”, adding: “I was caught by surprise, honestly. When he started talking about the politics with Iran and everything, it’s kind of like, ‘I just want to play football, man’.”
Trump’s comments come as he continues to try to push through legislation that would ban trans women and girls from female sports. Although the legislation has been blocked by congress, LGBTQ+ experts fear the number of laws aimed at transgender athletes could continue to rise.
The Movement Advancement Project has reported that 27 states have banned trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, although the proposed legislation has been at least partly blocked by the courts in five of them.
According to GLAAD’s accountability tracker, which details how often the president has denigrated LGBTQ+ people, Trump has commented on, or enacted policies aimed at, the community at least 263 times so far this year.
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