Trump administration freezes $175M in funding to Penn over trans athlete policies

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The Trump administration froze approximately $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania over the school’s policies for transgender athletes, a senior White House official told WHYY News.

The Ivy League university — and Philadelphia’s largest private employer — has drawn the ire of President Donald Trump as his administration cracks down on transgender athletes in collegiate sports. In February, the Department of Education launched an investigation into Penn over alleged violations of Title IX. The freeze announced Wednesday is not related to the department’s investigation, the official said.

“This is immediate proactive action to review discretionary funding streams” to Penn, the official added.

The funding freeze was first reported by FOX Business and confirmed by the White House in a post on X from its Rapid Response account.

“Promises made, promises kept,” the post reads.

The funding cuts to Penn would come from the Department of Defense and the Department of Health and Human Services, according to a senior White House official. Penn receives over $1 billion in funding from the federal government. According to an analysis by Penn’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, grants and contracts from HHS make up approximately 84% of this figure, while the Department of Defense constitutes 3.3%.

A spokesperson for the Department of Defense pointed WHYY News to the White House for comment. Penn did not respond to a request for comment.

Penn remains at risk of losing the entirety of its federal funding depending on the outcome of the Title IX investigation, FOX Business said, citing an administration official.

The freeze makes Penn the second Ivy League university to be explicitly targeted with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, after the administration cut more than $400 million from Columbia University earlier this month over its handling of antisemitism on campus. The White House has since outlined a number of demands to Columbia that the school needs to meet to get this money back — including significant changes to its disciplinary and admissions policies.

Penn already stands to lose over $250 million from the National Institutes of Health, plunging the university into financial uncertainty. Over the past month, Penn has cut or rescinded graduate admissions in several programs, frozen hiring and announced a slew of measures to protect the university’s financial standing.

“The scope and pace of the possible disruptions we face may make them more severe than those of previous challenges,” administrators wrote in a community-wide message on March 10.

Penn first drew scrutiny from Republicans in Congress — and eventually, Trump himself — for allowing transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete on its women’s swimming team. Through her final season at Penn in 2022, Thomas won an NCAA championship and three individual Ivy League titles, while setting a number of program records.

Before transitioning in 2019, Thomas competed on the men’s swimming team, following the given NCAA and Penn rules for competition. The White House said Penn had “infamously” permitted Thomas to compete on the women’s team after she transitioned, as well as accused her of “overturning multiple records hard-earned by women” and accessing a locker room that was only for women.

The news of Penn’s $175 million funding freeze was celebrated by Riley Gaines, who competed against Thomas in the Division 1 NCAA championships, in a post on X. Gaines is one of three Penn swimmers who sued the university and the NCAA in February over their support for Thomas competing on the women’s swimming team.

In February, Trump signed an executive order which sought to ban transgender athletes from female sports, a move that was followed by the NCAA. Penn proceeded to remove a page on diversity, equity and inclusion from its website detailing its policies for transgender athletes.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes Penn’s campus, condemned the freeze in a statement Wednesday as a “deplorable decision” harmful to the “entire city.” She called on Penn to take Trump to court to stand up for its “vulnerable students.”

“These funds have nothing to do with transgender student athletes — this is nothing more than a hollow pretext to target our community,” Gauthier said, suggesting the university use its endowment to protect cuts to thousands of jobs, research projects and educational programs.