Trump threatens US schools over gender transitions

US President Donald Trump has warned schools across the country against promoting gender identity and transition, touting his administration’s efforts to purge what he calls “transgender ideology” and “far-left extremism” from classrooms.

Speaking at a White House back-to-school event on Monday, Trump said schools could face legal and financial consequences for telling children they are “trapped in the wrong body.”

“Every public school in America is now on notice that if they tell a child that they’re trapped in the wrong body, they are committing child abuse,” he said.

The president accused his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration of “weaponizing” education and imposing “extreme ideologies,” including critical race theory and “transgender insanity,” on children as young as four or five. He said schools had neglected basic education for gender identity issues, leaving the US near the bottom among leading nations despite spending “more money on education than any other country in the world by double.”

Trump stated his return to office meant reversing course, citing his measures targeting transgender policies and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices in education.

“We’re systematically ending every single one of these radical left betrayals and we’re putting the parents back in charge,” he stated.

Speaking alongside Trump, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the administration had cut billions in DEI funding at schools and universities, redirecting it toward teachers, classrooms, and academic efforts, including workforce training. She warned that schools that continue promoting gender-related changes could lose funding altogether.

“If they subject children to radical experiments and sideline parents, they will lose their federal funding,” McMahon stated. “Children belong to their parents, not the federal government.”

Trump attacked the promotion of gender transition even before returning for his second term, vowing to “stop” gender-affirming care for minors, which he equated with “child sexual mutilation.”

On his first day back, he signed an executive order recognizing only two sexes, male and female, and defining sex as an immutable biological classification rather than gender identity. His administration later rolled back Biden-era Title IX rules expanding protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation and moved against schools over transgender students’ participation in girls’ sports, access to sex-segregated facilities, preferred pronouns, and social transition without parental knowledge.

Trump has also pursued a broader DEI crackdown, which his administration views as discriminatory and incompatible with merit-based policies. He ordered federal agencies to dismantle DEI programs, including in the military and Foreign Service, and reversed Biden-era workforce equity initiatives. The campaign has extended beyond government, with DEI funding cut and federal contractors and other institutions pressured to abandon race- and gender-conscious policies.

The crackdown has fueled disputes across the US, pitting Trump supporters and parental-rights groups against civil rights organizations, Democratic-led states, and some school districts, which have challenged several measures in court. Trump’s broader anti-DEI push has proved similarly divisive, with some major companies scaling back diversity programs while others have retained them despite administration pressure.