Malcolm Kenyatta Says Trump 'Should Not Talk About Protecting Women' After Trans Athletes Ruling
After the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that states can ban transgender women from competing in female school and college sports, President Donald Trump celebrated it as a “BIG WIN", drawing criticism from Democrats who called the decision a major blow to LGBTQ rights. Rep. Malcom Kenyatta (D-PA) went as far as to slam the president's message by pointing out scandals of his own, including the $5 million sexual assault case
The court upheld state laws that ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports in a largely divided 6-3 ruling. The decision came against two transgender students, Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, who had challenged the restrictive laws in West Virginia and Idaho, respectively. While the ruling directly concerns only the two states, as per NBC News, it is likely to affect 25 other states with similar bans. "BIG WIN: The United States Supreme Court just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS. Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!!" Trump wrote on Truth Social, hailing the decision.
Reacting to the president's message, Kenyatta took to X urging him to shut it, writing someone "who owes a woman $5 million for sexual assault and was besties with a pedophile" should not talk about protecting women.
A man who owes a woman $5 million for sexual assault and was besties with a pedophile should STFU about protecting women and girls.
— Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (@malcolmkenyatta) June 30, 2026
In his post, the Democratic Rep. referred to the Supreme Court's dismissal of Trump's appeal against the civil case that found he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll. In 2023, a New York Jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, which Trump is now compelled to pay after the appeal's dismissal. As per CBS News, Carroll's lawyer shared that Trump's team is looking to delay the payment, while Carroll has demanded an additional $779,783 in interest.
In the case of transgender women in female sports, the court considered cases from the two students against the laws in Idaho and West Virginia that required public school and college sports teams to compete in accordance with their sex recorded at birth. One of the two challenges said the ban violated equal rights protections in the U.S., while the other said it contradicts civil rights laws. Since 2020, when Idaho enacted the laws, over a dozen states have imposed similar bans, as per NBC. Under these bans, transgender women or biological men who identify as a woman are not permitted to compete in female sports at schools and colleges.
In the decision, all nine justices of the court agreed that the state bans do not violate a civil rights law called Title IX that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools, but the judges were split along ideological lines on whether the bans violate the Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law. In the final ruling, six conservative justices said it did not violate the Constitution, while the three liberal justices disagreed, delivering a 6-3 decision upholding the state bans.
