Trump, Bukele find common cause on trans sports ban and border crackdown

President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele share common ground on banning biological men from women’s sports – underscoring the growing alignment between their administrations as they coordinate efforts to curb illegal immigration to the U.S.

"Do you allow men to play in women's sports? Do you allow men to box your women?" Trump asked Bukele from the Oval Office on Monday. Trump's comments came after discussing immigration and implementing "common sense" policies. 

"That’s violence," Bukele said in response.

"That's abusive…but we have people that fight to the death because they think men should be able to play in women's sports," Trump said. 

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Pam Bondi, U.S. Attorney General, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (2nd R) sit nearby as President Donald Trump meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House, April 14, 2025.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Bukele then said that despite efforts to advance women’s right to prevent abuse against women in the past, there are new efforts that would "backtrack" on these initiatives and perpetuate violence against women instead. 

"I think those laws were great because there were a lot of men abusing women, but now some of the same people are trying to backtrack and actually trying to make new laws allowing men to abuse women, as in sports," Bukele said. "So actually, that doesn't make sense."

Trump signed an executive order in February barring those assigned male at birth from competing in women’s sports, titled, "No Men in Women's Sports." The order bans those assigned male at birth from using women’s restrooms and orders the Department of Education to spearhead investigations into cases of possible violations. 

President Donald Trump greets El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele as he arrives at the West Wing of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In response, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that it would follow the guidance and permit only those assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports.

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"The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard," NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement in February.