The Trump administration is again trying to apply its novel interpretation of Title IX to force transgender athletes off of girls’ sports teams, this time in California.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration said the California Department of Education was in violation of federal law by allowing transgender girls to compete on female sports teams.

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Trump threatens California with “large scale fines” because a trans teen won a track event
California changed its rules so she wouldn’t compete against other cisgender girls. The president is still pledging to punish the state.

It gave the state 10 days to reverse the policy or face “imminent enforcement action.”

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The administration claims that when schools recognize transgender identities, they’re violating cisgender girls’ rights under Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination and was designed to give all women and girls equal access to sports relative to men and boys.

The news came as a “finding” by Trump’s Department of Education, along with a threat to terminate the state’s federal education funding.

The announcement from the DOE, which the president has deployed as an enforcement arm in his crusade against transgender identity, cited the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care, as well as California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) own words expressing doubt about the “fairness” of transgender athletes participating in women’s and girls’ sports.

“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that,” Newsom told rightwing influencer Charlie Kirk in March. “It’s deeply unfair.”

Earlier this month, Trump threatened California on his Truth Social platform with “large-scale fines” after trans runner AB Hernandez won two track & field events at the state’s high school championship meet.

In May, Newsom endorsed a pilot program by the state’s high school sports governing body to accommodate cisgender female athletes shut out from qualifying for meets when trans athletes place ahead of them.

Despite those accommodations, wrestling executive and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon accused the governor and the state of allowing “men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions.”

“The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law,” McMahon said. “The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow.”

Trump and the DOE, along with the Justice Department and even the Department of Agriculture, made similar arguments earlier this year in their feud with Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), after she confronted Trump publicly at the White House over trans athletes and told him, “See you in court.”

Maine has since come to an agreement with the administration, and trans athletes continue to play in the state.

More than 20 U.S. states allow trans student athletes on teams that align with their gender, according to the Movement Advancement Project. California’s protections were signed into law under Newsom’s predecessor, Gov. Jerry Brown (D), in 2014.

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