Trump pauses $175M for Penn over trans athlete

What happened

The White House said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was withholding $175 million in federal funds from the University of Pennsylvania over its decision to allow a transgender swimmer to compete at the school in 2021 and 2022.

Separately, the Education Department — which Trump will seek to dismantle in an executive order Thursday — told Maine it risked losing federal K-12 funds if it didn't ban transgender athletes from competing in women's sports.

Who said what

Penn said in a statement it had not "received any official notification or any details" about suspended funding, but it "has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams." The university "no longer has any transgender athletes competing on women's teams," The Washington Post said, and the White House "did not explain the legal basis for the freeze."

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A White House official said Wednesday's announcement was "just a taste of what could be coming down the pike for Penn," according to Fox Business. The funding threat is Trump's "latest salvo" in his "growing fight with universities over campus culture and diversity initiatives," the Post said. Earlier this month he suspended $400 million for Columbia over alleged antisemitism.

What next?

Penn, "like many other universities, has already been bracing for a financial storm" from Trump's efforts to squeeze higher education, The New York Times said. The school has warned that a "threatened change involving National Institutes of Health funding" could "cost it about $240 million a year." The Maine funding ultimatum stems from a quick Title IX investigation launched "just hours after Trump and the state's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, clashed" on transgender athletes on Feb. 21, The Associated Press said.