Patriot Pulse

Karoline Leavitt Went to War With Leftists For Attacking Sophie Cunningham After Her Comments About Defending Girls

Frame Stock Footage image via Shutterstock
Frame Stock Footage image via Shutterstock

WNBA star Sophie Cunningham said men don't belong in women's sports and Democrats tried to cancel her for it.

Now the White House itself just stepped directly into the fight.

What Karoline Leavitt said next left Cunningham's critics with nowhere left to hide.

Sophie Cunningham Became a Target the Moment She Told the Truth

Sophie Cunningham did not set out to start a culture war.

She just told ESPN that she wants to protect "young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."

That single sentence turned the Indiana Fever guard into public enemy number one on the left.

Critics slapped her with the nickname "MAGA Barbie."

Fans on social media accused her of pushing anti-trans rhetoric.

The backlash got loud enough that some critics openly called for the WNBA to suspend her.

Cunningham never flinched.

"I said what I said," she told reporters ahead of Indiana's game against the Connecticut Sun.

She called her stance simple common sense, insisting Title IX opportunities for women exist precisely because someone has to protect them.

The White House Just Made This Personal

Thursday, the fight stopped being just about one basketball player.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stood behind the podium and made it about the entire country.

Leavitt said men should not be playing in women's sports and called it "completely ludicrous that anyone could support that."

She praised Cunningham as an accomplished athlete for speaking an uncomfortable truth publicly.

Then she turned the fire directly on the mob attacking her.

"They are clearly very out of touch with the American public on this issue," Leavitt said, framing it as an 80/20 fight that common sense already won.

The Department of Education didn't wait long to join in, posting an image of Cunningham wearing a crown over a caption reading simply "Common sense prevails."

Leavitt confirmed President Trump is personally following the story, even though he hasn't called Cunningham directly.

That's because Trump has made this fight his own for years, rolling back Biden-era transgender sports policy and pushing states to follow suit.

This isn't the first time a female athlete has paid a price for saying what Cunningham just said.

Riley Gaines endured years of vicious attacks and false headlines for making the identical argument about fairness in women's sports.

Long before Cunningham said a word, Idaho State runners Mary Kate Marshall and Madison Kenyon toed the starting line against a male runner from Montana back in 2019 – a race that helped push them into the lawsuit that eventually reached the Supreme Court.

That fight paid off on June 30, when the justices ruled 6-3 that Idaho and West Virginia could keep biological males out of girls' sports entirely.

The ruling reaffirmed that Title IX exists to guarantee women equal opportunity, not erase it, and it now protects female athletes in 27 states while pressuring the other 23 to act.

Democrats Keep Picking the Losing Side of an 80/20 Issue

Here's what should terrify every Democrat strategist reading this today – their own voters agree with Sophie Cunningham.

An 80/20 issue means four out of five Americans, including plenty of Democrats, think men shouldn't be playing girls' sports.

Yet the professional left keeps torching a WNBA player over it anyway, proving they'd rather lose elections than admit biology is real.

Every state that still allows it is choosing politics over its own voters' common sense.

Every pile-on against Cunningham just hands Karoline Leavitt and Donald Trump another headline proving Democrats are the ones out of touch with regular Americans.

Sophie Cunningham didn't ask to become a political flashpoint – she just wanted young girls to compete on a fair field.

The White House made sure she won't be fighting that battle alone.

Sources:

  • Staff, "WNBA's Sophie Cunningham Sparks Debate After Speaking Out on Women's Sports," Washington Times, July 22, 2026.
  • Staff, "White House Backs WNBA Star Sophie Cunningham on Women's Sports Remarks," Washington Times, July 23, 2026.
  • Staff, "Trump Is 'Following' the Sophie Cunningham Backlash Over Opposing Men in Women's Sports," Washington Examiner, July 23, 2026.
  • Staff, "WNBA's Sophie Cunningham Stands Firm in Face of Criticism," Daily Citizen, July 23, 2026.
  • Staff, "Inside the Supreme Court Battle to 'Save Women's Sports,'" Fox News/OutKick, July 2026.
  • Staff, "We Lost Races to a Male Athlete. The Supreme Court Just Gave Women a Win," Fox News, July 2026.
  • U.S. Department of Education (@usedgov), post on X, July 22, 2026.

Start Commenting!