Melania Trump reveals stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports – after rift with Donald on abortion

Melania Trump has revealed her opinion on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports – a topic that her husband Donald Trump and other Republicans have turned into a major political battleground in recent years.

The former first lady’s new memoir Melania was released on Tuesday, having already hit headlines for its revelation of a clear rift between Melania and the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump when it comes to abortion rights.

In stark contrast to her husband, Melania writes that abortion access is a “fundamental right” and acknowledges that they have political differences.

“Our differences create a more fascinating, creative, and innovative world,” the former model writes.

But, when it comes to transgender athletes, Melania appears to take a similar – and conservative – stance to her husband.

“Today, some groups attempt to impose their ideologies on everyone, deepening the divisions in our society. One example is the ongoing debate over trans inclusion in sports, specifically when male-born athletes who identify as female compete against women,” she writes.

“Male bodies generally have physical advantages – muscle strength, height, bone density, and lung capacity – that can affect fairness in competition, even at the high school level.”

She continues: “Some argue that the number of trans-athletes is low, but even one can upset the balance in a female league or tournament due to these physical advantages.

“High school athletes often dedicate years to training with the hope of being recruited by universities. Seeing that dream collapse is an unnecessary and avoidable consequence.

“This issue also has broader implications, including the loss of future earning potential as professional athletes and a potential setback for equal pay in sports.”

Foreseeing likely criticism, Melania insists she supports LGBT+ rights.

“As many of you may know, I fully support the LGBTQIA+ community. But we must also ensure that our female athletes are protected and respected,” she writes.

Trump himself once praised the inclusion of transgender contestants in his beauty pageants and even pledged to “defeat the cult of gender ideology” but has more recently taken to condemning the inclusion of transgender athletes in sports and has repeatedly made transphobic statements at his rallies.

This summer, he attacked Olympic gold medalist boxers Imane Khelif of Algeria and Li Yu-ting of Taiwan, falsely claiming of the competitors: “They were men. They transitioned to women.” The two female boxers faced a slew of hate.

He also promised to keep the “transgender insanity the hell out of our schools” at rallies in Wisconsin and Nevada last month and has taken to engaging in absurd scaremongering, without evidence of its ever actually happening, over the prospect of children being forced to undergo sex-change surgery against their will.

Elsewhere in her new book, Melania reveals that she is pen pals with King Charles III, blames her advisers for plagiarising a Michelle Obama speech in 2016, recounts an unauthorized visit to the White House Situation Room, defends her nude modelling career and reveals what qualities first attracted her to her husband.

She also attacks the FBI over its raid on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 in search of classified documents, remembers the birth of her son Barron Trump and his experiences of bullying, denounces alleged efforts to “silence” the former president and hints at the prospect of a conspiracy at play in the first attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.