Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham has a fan in President Donald Trump.
Trump, 80, invoked the controversial WNBA guard while discussing trans people in women’s sports at a rally in Ohio on Monday, October 12.
“Sophie is a beautiful young woman,” he said, before gesturing to former NFL coach Jon Gruden, who was at the rally for Senator Jon Husted. “You probably wouldn’t mind her on the team, not to help you with points, but to help you with attendance. The attendance would be great.”
Cunningham, 30, has been a vocal opponent of trans women playing in the WNBA — something that has never happened and that is not likely to be an issue any time soon. Her remarks have sparked blowback from her fellow WNBA players, coaches, fans and even her longtime friend and former podcast cohost, West Wilson.
“You have a lot of men wanting to go and watch her. She’s beautiful,” Trump continued. “You’re not allowed to say that anymore, however, as a politician. Please, please, let me take it back. Anytime a politician says a woman is beautiful, that’s generally the end of his political career in the modern-day [political] world.”
Despite having the support of the president, Cunningham has long insisted that she is politically moderate, telling ESPN in July that she is “very much in the middle.”
“I agree with things on both sides, disagree with things on both sides,” she said. “And that’s all I’ve ever said about my political beliefs. But people love to assume.”
Cunningham also tried to clarify her stance on trans athletes in the story, insisting her views don’t come from a hateful place.
“I got a lot of negative feedback about me hating trans [people]. And I’m like, ‘I never once said that,’” she argued. “I think that I am here to extend love. But I also think, with that, love is truth, being honest. And 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 added, “I think there is room for absolutely everyone here and I think there’s room to love everyone,” she said. “I truly think when you get people in the same room and have conversations, you have a lot in common with a lot of people. I’m there to love, but I’m also there to love biological women and I think there are rights that need to be protected.”
Monday was not the first time the White House has addressed Cunningham. When the ESPN story was released, former White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that while Trump hadn’t reached out to Cunningham, he was following “the story.”
“As you know, this is something the president feels strongly about as well, and the American people do, too; that men should not be playing in women’s sports,” she said.
