During Tuesday night’s speech to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump praised 19-year-old North Carolinian Payton McNabb. She was severely injured by a transgender athlete during a high school girls’ volleyball game, and has since an outspoken advocate of banning biological men from competing in sports designated for biological women. Trump and his wife Melanie invited McNabb, a native of Murphy, to be a special guest during the address.
During his address, Trump promised McNabb that any schools allowing men to compete in women’s sports would be blocked from receiving federal funding.
“Payton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls’ team, or they will lose all federal funding,” said Trump. The comment was met with immediate applause, but McNabb noted that not a single Democrat applauded the line.
“The hypocrisy… Democrats claim to be champions for women, even wearing pink for show, but just yesterday, not a single one voted for the protection of women and girls,” McNabb posted on X . “Tonight, not one stood up. Not one clapped. Their behavior all night wasn’t just embarrassing, it was disgraceful and frankly, evil.”
Trump’s promise referenced an executive order (EO) he signed one month ago, on February 5, blocking federal funding from schools that allow men to compete in women’s sports.
“Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy,” reads the order. “It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
McNabb is a student at Western Carolina University (WCU) and has been campaigning in favor of legislation at both the state and federal levels that would prohibit men from participating in women’s sports.
On Monday, US Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025,” a bill that would block schools that allow biological men to play in women’s sports from receiving federal funding. The bill failed on Monday to meet the 60-vote requirement to advance. Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate and need at least seven Democrats to cross party lines and vote in favor of the bill.
Shortly after the vote, McNabb called out the 45 Democrats who voted against the bill in an X post.
The @SenateDems had the chance to protect girls and women from experiencing what happened to me. Instead, they chose to abandon women—even those with daughters of their own.
This is a betrayal. Vote them out. pic.twitter.com/z7sBmtw29A
— Payton McNabb (@paytonmcnabb_) March 4, 2025
McNabb’s story began back in 2022 when she was 17 and suffered a traumatic brain injury after being struck in the face by a volleyball spiked by a transgender athlete on the opposing team.
She also worked alongside Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer, in advocating for the passage of HB 574, the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” in the North Carolina General Assembly. After a veto override vote, the bill became law in August 2023.
During a recent Title IX hearing at WCU, McNabb was cleared of “sexual harassment” accusations related to a May incident in which she confronted and recorded an individual she believed to be a biological male in the women’s bathroom.