US President Donald Trump may have accidentally defined all American citizens as females, following a controversially-worded executive order regarding biological sex passed on his first day back in office in Monday.
In his inaugural speech, Trump promised to end “the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” and stated that henceforth it is now the “official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
The White House’s statement regarding the executive order said that “ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers.”
It continued by saying that this issue would be tackled by using “clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
The male and female sexes are, as Trump stated, to be “grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Hours after his speech, Trump signed this policy into effect via executive order under the name Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.
However, the criteria that Trump gives for males and females actually define everyone as a woman.
Did Trump define all Americans as women?
According to his executive order, “female” means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell, whereas “male” means a person belonging at conception to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.
Biologically, however, all fetuses at conception are female until about six or seven weeks of gestation.
The sexual organs (gonads) of a fetus remain undifferentiated up until this point, meaning that all fetal genitalia are female until 6-7 weeks post conception.
Scientifically, Trump’s order puts everyone as women, given as at conception, all fetuses belong to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.
‘First female POTUS’: Reactions to Trump’s executive order
Netizens reacted with amusement to the order, taking to social media to claim, “just learned I’m female” and “I’m every woman.”
One user wrote on Reddit, “Donald Trump is a stunning and brave woman now,” to which another replied, “has to be, to have made it as the first female POTUS.”
Other users joked that the wage gap has now disappeared, given everyone is female. “Well s***, my paycheck just dropped 30%,” wrote one.
Another user reassured them, “But your life expectancy just went up, so you’ve got that going for you. However, you are now more likely to spend your later years in poverty and with chronic health conditions. Which may be a bit of a downer.”
There was some dispute about the application of the science online. Some users raised the issue that the order discusses ‘large reproductive cells’ vs ‘small reproductive cells,’ referring to eggs and sperm. It does not allude to x and y chromosomes, or genitals.
Scientifically, since no fetus has egg or sperm cells at conception, the order could also mean that no-one has a gender.
Trump delivers dozens of executive orders
Trump, who signed multiple executive orders on his first day, promised to begin “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” according to excerpts of his inaugural address.
On his first day, he pardoned about 1,500 people who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He also rescinded Executive Order 14115 issued on February 1, 2024, which authorized the imposition of certain sanctions on Israeli settler groups “on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank.”
His decision to withdraw for the second time from the Paris climate deal has also been met with fear and condemnation, as it removes the world’s biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
Trump also made statements about Israel’s ceasefire with Gaza, saying that he was “not confident” about it, adding, “It’s not our war. It’s their war. I’m not confident, but they’re very weakened on the other side.”
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