In a question about uniting the country, former president Donald Trump turned the answer into a referendum on transgender athletes.
Appearing on the most recent episode of Barstool Sports’ Bussin’ With The Boys, Trump was asked by co-host Will Compton about how he would go about uniting the country in a potential second term.
After saying that the nine-year NFL veteran linebacker asked a “great question,” Trump pointed to the national divide by claiming that the Democratic Party is for open borders before making more false claims about transgender athletes.
Specifically, he singled out Algerian boxer and Olympic gold-medal winner Imane Khelif, who is a biological woman.
Khelif became the center of a media firestorm over the summer after her opening-round opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, withdrew after 46 seconds after being unable to recover from a punch. While Carini said she was not making a political statement, everyone from Italian premier Giorgia Meloni to novelist J.K. Rowling started spreading false claims that Khelif was a transgender woman or “genetically male,” kicking off a fierce round of culture war discussions based on hearsay and misinformation.
The false claims regarding Khelif’s gender stem from her having previously disqualified from the 2023 World Boxing Championships due to a chromosome test implemented by the International Boxing Association, even though she is a biological woman. She has since filed a moral harassment lawsuit against Elon Musk and X, but that didn’t seem to deter Trump from repeating those claims.
“For instance, they want men playing in women’s sports,” Trump claimed. “I don’t think I could ever say I’m thrilled about that, OK? I’ve seen it; I’ve seen people really hurt. In the Olympics, you had two boxers that transitioned to women and the women’s boxing; they both won gold medals. And you saw the one, the young Italian girl, got hit a couple of times…”
Compton interjected that the Italian boxer should’ve stayed in the ring.
“Well, it was sort of weird, right?” asked Trump.
“You fight your entire life for that moment,” Compton continued. “You know, going into it, you’re probably going to face this person.”
“It was a weird thing,” Trump replied. “I mean, she got hit very hard — and only with lefts. You know, it was, ‘poom,’ and she then walked back to the corner. She said, ‘I just got hit by a horse. I can’t take it.’ And then she walked back. You’re right about — a little bit right — but she’s fighting a man. She is fighting a man.”
Compton tried to reason with Trump but didn’t get very far. In what was otherwise a largely softball interview as expected, this proved to be a relatively testy exchange.
“She got hit — beautiful girl — she got hit by two jabs, and that was the end of it,” Trump said. “That’s interesting. So, in other words, she should have gotten the s**t knocked out of her?
“No, she could’ve gotten in there and scrapped and go win!” replied Compton.
“This guy’s a nasty — he’s a nasty guy!” Trump said of the former NFL linebacker with a smile.
Then, all three of them, including co-host Taylor Lewan, attempted to talk over one another. It was reminiscent of two presidential candidates trying to argue over one another during a debate, albeit with a lot less vitriol.
“He wants her to go in there and just get the hell beat out of her,” Trump said. “She had a beautiful face. She wants her on the floor bleeding profusely; broken nose, it’ll never be the same again, scar down the face. You’re a tough guy. He’s a tough guy. She might’ve done the right thing, and I’m not one that says that… the two guys — there were two of them — and they both won a gold medal.”
In the interview with BTWB, Trump showed just how easily the conversation shifts from the real issue at hand to something completely different. Instead of focusing on how to bring people together, the discussion spiraled into yet another round of baseless claims about transgender athletes, centered on a woman who’s been unfairly dragged into the culture war yet again.
