The Trump administration has frozen $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over the school's inclusion of biological men in women's sports, according to a White House tweet Wednesday morning.
"This is just a taste of what could be coming down the pipe for Penn," one senior Trump administration official warned, according to Fox Business. The University of Pennsylvania, which reported around $1 billion last year from the federal government, is now at risk of losing all of its federal funding, the outlet reported.
The funding pause comes as the Trump administration investigates the Ivy League school over violations of Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. The Department of Education launched the investigation on February 6, a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning biological male athletes from competing in women's sports.
The university faced backlash in 2022 when it allowed swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological man, to compete on the women's team and use women's locker rooms. Thomas went on to win the NCAA championship in the women's 500-yard freestyle and tie for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle, alongside then-University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines.
More than a dozen female athletes, including Gaines, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in 2024, arguing that the inclusion of biological men in women's sports violates Title IX.
Three Penn swimmers who competed against Thomas also sued the university. One of the plaintiffs, Margot Kaczorowski, said she was "thrilled to see that there are finally people in positions of power willing to support and protect women."
The Trump administration's funding freeze "is the accountability we've been asking for and it's sad that it has to come to this but the university has made it clear that they will not protect women unless there is money attached to it," Kaczorowski said. "I hope this makes them reflect on the real trauma they inflicted on women that year by ignoring the law and not ensuring safety and fairness for women. We shouldn't have to beg for it, it shouldn't be about money, the university should protect women simply because it's the right thing to do."
Trump in a February 5 executive order condemned transgender participation in women's sports.
"In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women's sports," the order reads. "This is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports."