We go to great lengths in this country — and for that matter, worldwide — to ensure that athletic competition is as fair as possible. Doping is forbidden. Cheating is against the rules. We scream to high heaven if an umpire or referee makes the wrong call. So why on God’s green earth do we allow men to compete against women and call it fair?

Donald Trump looked at the issue and came to a straightforward conclusion: We should restrict women’s sports to actual women. “It’s all about common sense,” Trump said. “The war on women’s sports is over.” Flanked by women and girls yesterday, the president signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

Allowing men to compete in women’s sports, the order notes, “is demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.” The order also argues that it’s illegal under Title IX, which Joe Biden grossly tried to redefine before being slapped down in court. The order says:

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. 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.

NCAA President Charlie Baker acknowledged the order in a statement, saying it “provides a clear, national standard.” Time will tell how other entities will respond.

The Leftmedia, of course, went into full-blown panic. ESPN, the supposed worldwide leader in sports, wailed that Trump’s order would “prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in women’s or girl’s sporting events.” Well, yeah, that’s called science. I know that ESPN does sports and not English, but talk about mangling the language. There’s a three-letter word that means “people who were biologically assigned male at birth” — men.

ESPN, of course, is the same outfit that, in 2023, honored a 6-foot-1 male swimmer calling himself Lia Thomas in its “Celebrating Women’s History Month” feature.

On a related note, three former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmers have sued the school and the Ivy League for allowing Thomas to compete and dominate as a “woman.” They want his records expunged.

NBC News, which has an entire section of its website called “NBC Out” that is dedicated to the gender cult, headlined that Trump is “banning trans women from women’s sports.” Worse, NBC claims, “It is the fourth order directly targeting transgender people the president has signed since he took office Jan. 20.”

USA Today likewise used the word “targeting” in its headline: “Trump signs executive order targeting transgender girls, women athletes.”

The Left sure does torture the English language. “Trans women” are men, and requiring that they play men’s sports with other men isn’t “targeting.” These men unfairly take women’s places and awards, endanger them on the field or court, and subject them to their own sexual fetishes in locker rooms.

Despite Leftmedia gaslighting and manipulative language, preserving female sports for biological females is not a close issue, if polling is accurate. In fact, I’d argue that polling overcounts people favoring the “transgender” side. No one wants to be labeled a bigot, which is what the radical Left does on every facet of identity politics.

Another interesting factoid: In searching for polling results on the subject, the results over the years started to skew even more heavily in favor of preserving women’s sports instead of the fantasy that some men can claim to be women and join the team. As those results got worse for the Rainbow Mafia, media organizations became less interested in the subject. In any case, anywhere from two-thirds to more than three-quarters of Americans agree with Trump.

The Left often wins cultural issues with marketing and optics. Take same-sex marriage, for example. When “equality” didn’t get them where they wanted to go, they changed branding and called it “love wins.”

Trump knows this, which is why he chose National Girls & Women in Sports Day to sign his order — again, flanked by a room full of smiling and cheering actual females. Trump understands optics.

So do the makers of a new ad created by XX-XY Athletics.

Saving women’s sports will require orders, laws, rules, and bravery. It will also necessitate thoughtful and impactful marketing to persuade even more Americans that some science is indeed settled.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.