Former US president, Donald Trump spoke about women’s Olympic gold medal boxer Imane Khelif physical attributes during an interview with WWE legend The Undertaker.
Khelif, who won gold in the women’s welterweight category at the Paris Olympics this summer, was allowed to compete at the Games despite being banned from the 2023 World Boxing Championships for allegedly failing gender eligibility tests.
The 25-year-old Algerian, who was born female sparked fierce controversy and backlash both during and after the Olympic Games over her success
Appearing on The Undertaker’s eagerly-anticipated podcast ‘Six Feet Under’ on Monday, Trump referred to Khelif as a ‘man’ after the wrestling star urged that ‘protecting’ women’s sports from transgender athletes was a huge priority for him during the upcoming United States presidential election.
The Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway, brought his daughter on to the podcast in an effort to show how young women are being affected by the heavily-debated issue.
‘I think it’s very demeaning to women,’ Trump said before pointing to The Undertaker’s daughter. ‘She wants to play sports and she wants to play against women. You don’t necessarily want to play against men. It’s okay but you don’t want to do it.
‘Did you see that boxing match at the Olympics? Did you see that beautiful Italian girl? She’s supposed to be a good boxer. She took just a left jab. The guy goes (Trump throws a punch) boom. Like a defensive punch.
‘I never saw something quite like that. She doesn’t go down, she walked back to her corner and said, “I just got hit harder than I’ve ever been hit before”. Her corner pushes her back out, “You can do it, you can do it”. He goes with another left jab and she walks off, “There’s no way I can win”.’
Trump continued to double down on the claim by detailing how ‘two people who transitioned into women’ fought in the female category at the Olympics, which was described by The Undertaker as ‘shocking’ and ‘ridiculous’.
In September, Khelif took a swipe at American billionaire Elon Musk, who is an avid supporter of Trump ahead of the presidential election, for leading a ‘cruel campaign’ against her during the Olympics.
The X tycoon, who along with the former US president has been named in a cyberbullying lawsuit filed by Khelif, quoted a post on his own platform which called for men to be thrown out of women’s sports in light of her round of 16 victory over Italy’s Angela Carini, the opponent to which Trump was referring during the podcast.