trump banned men from women's sports. then he gave two of them a "full pardon" at a rally. make it make sense.

Photo: GabboT, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

via the Roll Call Factba.se transcript, Mediaite and KGOU

In February 2025 the president signed an executive order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." On Thursday night in Oklahoma, he announced the exceptions.

"We banned all men except for Dennis Rodman and Freedom," Trump told a rally at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant, according to the Factba.se transcript. "They're the only two men that we're gonna allow to play in women's sports." KGOU, which covered the rally, quoted the same line. Both men were in the room.

what trump actually said

It came up twice. About 26 minutes in, Trump asked Enes Kanter Freedom to stand, called him "a monster," and said "he's willing to say that he's a woman in order to play against women. And I don't think he really believes that, but that's okay. These are minor details." Then he found Rodman. "Dennis, you're a little bit older now, but you're in great shape. Do you think you'd be able to make it in women's basketball? I don't know, Dennis. I'm very worried about you."

Forty minutes later he came back for the closer. "So those two guys, they are good. And they have an exemption. I'm giving them a full pardon that they can go into women's sports anytime they want." He added that "they will break every record in the history of women's sports."

A pardon for what is not clear. Mediaite, which ran C-SPAN's video, notes that Rodman retired from the NBA in 2000 and "has never expressed interest in playing in the WNBA," and that Trump credited him with playing at Oklahoma State, when Rodman actually played at Southeastern Oklahoma State. Close, babe.

the man who actually wants in

Kanter Freedom does want in, sort of. He declared for the 2027 WNBA draft in August as a protest against the league's policy on trans players, Mediaite reports, a bit we covered when Cheryl Reeve answered it. Hours after the rally he posted on X that he had invited Trump to his "first @WNBA game in 2027" and that Rodman "has agreed to coach me this offseason and get me ready for the #WNBA season."

So to recap the official position of the United States government: men may not play women's sports, except two specific men the president likes, who may do so whenever they want, as a pardon. We would love to read the executive order for that one. We suspect the women of the WNBA would too.