During a gathering in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump left professional soccer players momentarily speechless with a remark concerning transgender athletes, questioning whether women could join their men’s teams. 

The event featured guests due to the FIFA Club World Cup, with FIFA President Gianni Infantino present alongside players and representatives from the renowned Italian club, Juventus. 

Among the Juventus delegation were American players Weston McKennie and Tim Weah, who are anticipated to feature in the United States national team at the World Cup next summer. 

Trump’s initial question to the soccer players in attendance at the White House was to McKennie about transgender athletes.

‘Could a woman make your team fellas? Tell me, you think?’ Trump said to his fellow American. 

McKennie looked stunned, who deferred an answer to Weah, and then Italian star Manuel Locatelli, who respectfully responded with, ‘Yeah.’ 

‘You’re being nice,’ Trump responded to Locatelli. 

‘What do you think, think a woman could make the team? General managers, what do you think?’ Trump said, turning to some of the Juventus leadership. 

‘We have a very good women’s team,’ Juventus general manager Damien Comolli said to Trump. 

‘You do have it, but they should be playing with women. It’s one of those things. See, they’re very diplomatic. 

Trump’s opining to professional athletes comes after his bill to ban biological male athletes from competing in women’s sports fell into the senate last month.  

Legislation that aimed to bar trans women and girls nationwide from participating in school athletic competitions designated for female athletes failed to advance in a divided Senate as Democrats stood united against an issue that Republicans leveraged in last year’s elections.

A test vote on the bill failed to gain the 60 votes needed to advance in the chamber as senators stuck to party lines in a 51-45 vote tally. The bill sought to determine Title IX protections ‘based solely on a person´s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.’

One of the latest examples of Trump and his administration trying to block transgender athletes from competing happened in California, before the Los Angeles protests, with track athlete AB Hernandez. 

The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) widened the field at the high school track-and-field championships as Trump’s Department of Justice investigates the participation of a transgender athlete. 

California opened the event to more girls after Hernandez drew criticism for qualifying for the meet. The CIF will now permit an extra competitor in three events featuring the 16-year-old Hernandez.

The rule change is temporary, according to the CIF, and not a direct response to Trump’s recent online criticism of California state policy or Governor Gavin Newsom.

Now, if a transgender athlete medals at this weekend’s state championships outside Fresno, their ranking will not displace a ‘biological female’ student from medaling. So if Hernandez medals in the high jump, triple jump or long jump, the podium will include an additional competitor, who will also be awarded a medal.

The federation has not announced any plans to verify whether a competitor meets the definition of ‘biological female.’

The American Medical Association and American Psychiatric Association have both stated that gender is a spectrum and not a binary structure, as the White House argued in its January 20 executive order ‘defending women from gender ideology.’

Juventus was drawn into a Club World Cup group against English powerhouse Manchester City, as well as Wydad AC from Morocco and Al Ain FC from the United Arab Emirates.