ISTANBUL
The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it is suspending $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania due to the school's policies supporting transgender athletes.
The White House announced the decision on X, saying the action was driven by the university’s policies “forcing women to compete with men in sports.”
“Promises made, promises kept,” the statement added.
The decision is connected to a transgender woman who secured the top US national college swimming title in 2022 while competing for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia.
"UPenn infamously permitted a male to compete on its women's swimming team, overturning multiple records hard-earned by women, and granting the fully intact male access to the locker room," an unnamed White House official said in an email to reporters on Wednesday.
The official said that the funding in question was being supplied by the US Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services.
In a statement, the university said it had not yet received any official notification of the suspension in funding.
It stressed that it has always adhered to NCAA college athletics and Ivy League policies on student-athlete participation, adding: “We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply not only to Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions.”
Recently, the Trump administration also canceled approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to New York’s Columbia University, citing the school’s alleged failure to address antisemitism amid pro-Palestinian protests on campus.