Donald Trump Jr wades in on WNBA trans debacle after ex-NBA star declares for Draft
Donald Trump Jr wades in on WNBA trans debacle after ex-NBA star declares for Draft
Jeremy GoldsteinSun, August 9, 2026 at 11:28 PM UTC
0
Donald Trump Jr jumped into the Enes Kanter-WNBA discourse with a tweet -Credit:Getty Images
Former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have attracted a flurry of attention for taking to social media to declare their intent to play in the WNBA.
Their comments come after a July ESPN feature, in which Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham's comments on whether she believes trans women deserve a place in women's sports or the WNBA. The Indiana player expressed her belief that "biological men" should be kept out of women's sports and locker rooms.
Freedom posted a one-minute video to his X account of himself in a WNBA-branded hoodie, making the official announcement. On Sunday, Donald Trump Jr, the oldest child of Donald Trump, decided to quote-tweet it and respond.
• Don Nelson dies aged 86 as Steph Curry leads tributes to iconic Warriors coach
• FOX host wants WNBA shut down after Sophie Cunningham-DiJonai Carrington 'embarrassment'
"I’m going to go out [on] a limb here and predict Enes breaks every record in the WNBA in year one. She truly is going to make a spectacular women’s basketball player," he wrote.
The president used trans scare tactics to help win the 2024 election, running his campaign commercial mocking trans people more than any other in the month before the November election.
Trump Sr. has continued talking about trans athletes in sports throughout his second term. "Men should not be able to participate in women's sports— that's a 99% issue. Do you ever hear the fake news? They said that's an 80%-20% issue. That's not," he said at a Pennsylvania rally in June.
Advertisement
In February 2025, Trump signed "Keep Men Out of Women's Sports." With it, he declared: "With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over."
Sophie Cunningham started a firestorm after her July comments in an ESPN feature
There are no transgender athletes competing in competitive American sports. Fewer than 10 trans athletes compete in the NCAA, which currently has over 500,000 athletes in total.
Freedom, an 11-year NBA veteran and the No. 3 pick in the 2011 draft, spoke for a minute in his video announcing his intentions to play in the WNBA. "My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA's eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion," he said in a video.
• Riley Gaines drags Caitlin Clark into Sophie Cunningham drama after DiJonai Carrington 'assault'
• Caitlin Clark was left struggling to see after brutal DiJonai Carrington swipe
"Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in May 2027. I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or to suspect any community or personal choices.
"I am simply asking that the current rules be applied equally to everyone – the rules that reflect the very values many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated. My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles."
The WNBA's collective bargaining agreement does not say anything about self-identification or inclusion as Freedom states, instead simply reading, "only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA."
Source: “AOL Sports”
