Democrats sat on their hands when Trump honored Payton McNabb – the girl who suffered permanent brain injuries after a trans athlete spiked a volleyball in her face.
Now a WNBA bench player said the same thing McNabb said, and Democrats are trying to destroy her too.
But Karoline Leavitt just handed them a question they cannot answer.
A Bench Player Said What Every Female Athlete Already Knows
Sophie Cunningham plays bench minutes for the Indiana Fever and averages 9.3 points a game.
She is not the star.
She became the story anyway – because she said out loud what millions of women think privately and get punished for saying publicly.
"I want to protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men," Cunningham told ESPN.
The backlash was immediate.
Left-wing accounts called her a bigot.
https://twitter.com/realTrentLeisy/status/2080344250106138933?s=20
Online mobs demanded the WNBA fine her.
One headline called her a "stain on society."
Her response: "I said what I said."
Then ESPN's own Stephen A. Smith stepped in.
"You can't have a society where we're ignoring the clear unfairness of a male transitioning to female and competing against women in their sports," Smith said on his SiriusXM show. "It is clearly unfair to women. Sophie Cunningham is a thousand percent right."
And Democrats still couldn't stop attacking her.
Karoline Leavitt Put the Left on Defense
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt didn't wait.
At Thursday's press briefing, she walked straight into the controversy and made clear exactly where this administration stands.
"Men should not be playing in women's sports," Leavitt said. "It's completely ludicrous that anyone could support that."
Then she said the quiet part out loud.
"The backlash she is receiving from Democrats and left-wing figures across the country is astonishing. They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue," she added.
She called it an 80/20 issue – and she's right.
https://twitter.com/JackThompsonFOX/status/2080329222896095321?s=20
A New York Times/Ipsos poll found 79 percent of Americans believe biological males should not be allowed to compete in women's sports.
Sixty-seven percent of Democrats said the same thing.
That means the loudest voices attacking Cunningham speak for fewer than one in five Americans – and they don't even represent their own party.
Democrats Built This Exact Moment Themselves
This is not a new fight.
Riley Gaines had to compete against a biological male at the 2022 NCAA swimming championships.
She tied for fifth place – and then watched the trophy go to someone who should not have been on that podium.
She spent the next three years telling anyone who would listen.
Democrats called her a transphobe.
By 2024, 25 states had passed legislation barring transgender athletes from women's sports – because voters in those states decided their daughters mattered more than the activists' feelings.
Democrats blocked the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act in the Senate.
Then Trump signed the executive order "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" in February 2025, flanked by over 60 female athletes including Riley Gaines.
"With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over," he said.
The NCAA immediately aligned its policy with the order.
Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and Las Vegas Aces forward Brianna Turner pushed back – arguing sports policies should prioritize trans acceptance over fairness to the female athletes they are supposed to protect.
https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2077821302019064221?s=20
Women's basketball coaches advocating against female athletes.
Think about that.
Now Sophie Cunningham says she wants to protect girls in locker rooms – and the same Democrats who sat stone-faced for Payton McNabb are calling for her head.
You cannot call yourself the party of women if your first move when a woman speaks up for women is to try to destroy her.
Stephen A. Smith said she was a thousand percent right.
Karoline Leavitt said it.
The polling confirms it.
Sources:
- "Common Sense and Protection: WNBA's Sophie Cunningham Reiterates Position Against Trans Athletes in Women's Sports," One America News, July 24, 2026.
- "Why Sophie Cunningham Is Speaking Out About Transgender Athletes," Deseret News, July 24, 2026.
- "White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Defended Sophie Cunningham After the WNBA Star's Comments on Trans Athletes Drew Criticism Online," Operation Sports, July 24, 2026.
- "Karoline Leavitt Addresses Democrats Defying Trans Athlete Ban Demand: 'Can't Say You Are the Party of Women,'" Fox News.
- "Trump Signs Executive Order Banning Transgender Athletes from Women's Sports," ABC News, February 6, 2025.
- "Stephen A. Smith Backs Sophie Cunningham's Take on Trans Athletes: 'Clearly Unfair to Women,'" Yahoo Sports, July 23, 2026.