United States footballer, Megan Rapinoe has slammed President Donald Trump over his order banning trans athletes from women's sports.
Speaking with soccer publication, MUNDIAL, the former Team USA captain disagreed with the President's claim that he's protecting female athletes from trans rivals.
'Don't tell me it's about the rights of women's sports,' the 39-year-old former Ballon d'Or Féminin winner said. 'That is totally disingenuous to say that.'
Since his inauguration in January, Trump has signed executive orders requiring the federal government to recognize only two genders and another titled: 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports.'
In the latter order, the Trump administration vowed to rescind funding to any institution that permits trans athletes to participate in female sports. Since then, the NCAA has amended its policy and now limits women's sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth.
But while Trump's order claims to 'protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports,' Rapinoe insists there's a more sinister purpose at play.
'I think it's just really cruel,' she said. 'You know, if you strip it all back, it's just kind of cruel and depraved. This isn't an issue and you aren't going to be able to Executive Order trans people out of existence.
'We've just gone through a very long period over ten years of really needing to fight just to get to a baseline of, like, equal rights and non-discriminatory behaviour, and when people stop just s***ting on women's sports. I think we are sort of at that moment.'
Piers Morgan immediately seized on Rapinoe's opinion online, attacking her for calling Trump 'depraved.'
'Imagine thinking that anyone who questions biological men playing in women’s sport is ‘'depraved.,''' the 59-year-old Morgan wrote on X alongside a string of laughing emojis. 'Rapinoe is such a fraud.'
