Trump Criticized For Mocking Transgender Weightlifter In University Of Alabama Commencement Speech: ‘My Wife Gets Upset When I Do That’

Jacob BarkerMay 6, 2025, 11:32 pmNews >

Following a commencement at the University of Alabama, President Donald Trump drew criticism for crudely impersonating a transgender athlete.

While addressing women’s sports policies, Trump proceeded to mock the inclusion of transgender women in female athletic competitions. “You ever see the weightlifting where they have a record that wasn’t broken in 18 years?”

What followed was a dramatized scenario where a female weightlifter failed to lift a minimal amount of weight, only to be outperformed by a “transitioned person.”

“Should I do it or not? All right, I’m in trouble when I get home,” he said, “I’ve been in trouble before, but no, you look at the weightlifting where it stands for 18 years, and they have this young woman and her parents. They’re so proud of her. It’s 209 pounds, and she will lift that.”

“‘Mom, I love you, I’m going to do it for you,'” he continued. “She lifts and she gets it, ‘Mom, I’m going to do it. Mom, Eeeee! Ugh, can’t do it.

“Then a guy comes in or a gal or whatever. A transitioned person, and he was a failed weightlifter as a male, but he comes along 206 pounds, they put the little thing on and just, ‘Boom, boom, boom.'”

He later lamented that he was “in trouble” with Melania Trump, “You know, my wife gets upset when I do this,” he said, adding that Melania felt it was “not presidential.” “So now that I’m in trouble with my wife, I’m going to blame the University of Alabama for making me do it.”

Trump’s speech was well-received by the crowd. The state had previously backed him in all three of his presidential runs. He quickly launched into a campaign-style diatribe, saying the United States was being ‘ripped off’ before he took office and that the last four years, when he was out of power, were “not good for the country.”