It is unclear whether the decree targets both elite and recreational sports.
According to South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace, a member of the House of Representatives, it aims to "defend the rights of female athletes who have fought their whole lives to be able to compete at the highest level".
Only two genders in the USA
Already on his first day as president, he signed a decree stating that the official stance of the US government is that there are only two genders.
Trump then revoked Joe Biden's order allowing trans people to serve in the US army, as well as directives aimed at preventing discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
The issue of gender identity and trans people's rights in sports has been debated in recent years, and several sports have reviewed their rules.
American swimmer Lia Thomas became the first trans woman to win a college championship in the USA in 2022, but was not allowed to compete internationally.
According to the International Swimming Federation's trans rules, which were introduced in 2022, a person born as a man must have undergone gender correction before the age of 12 to be allowed to compete with women. Lia Thomas began her gender correction at the age of 20 in 2019.
Thomas took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but was not successful in her appeal.
"Protect women's sports"
The International Athletics Federation has also said no to trans people in women's classes. The federation's chairman, Sebastian Coe, is now running to become the new chairman of the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and said in an interview in November that women's sports must be protected.
If we don't protect women's sports and don't have clear and unambiguous guidelines for doing so, we risk losing women's sports. Personally, and as a leader of an Olympic sport, I don't want that to happen, Coe told AFP.
Last summer, a debate raged around the participation of female boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting in the Paris OS. The International Boxing Federation IBA claimed that they had not passed a gender test in 2023, but the IOC said that the test was not valid and gave both boxers the green light for the OS.
Both then won OS gold.
I don't think you can take lightly sports like boxing. You need to have clear rules, which are needed in all sports, Coe said about the debate.
