EXCLUSIVE: Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's press office made a social media post mocking the latest announcement by the U.S. Department of Education that the state had violated Title IX by allowing trans athletes in women's sports.
Newsom's press office X account mocked U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon with an old clip of her being body-slammed during a WWE skit. The clip was of current Knox County Mayor Glenn Thomas Jacobs, also known as "Kane," hitting McMahon with move known as the "tombstone piledriver" during an episode of "Monday Night Raw" in the early 2000s.
The post incited mass backlash by Californians and women's rights activists across the nation. Now McMahon has responded to the controversial social media post.
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"I think what that said is that Gavin Newsom doesn't really take this seriously at all. And I was surprised that that was the clip that he used," McMahon told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
"He was trying to be funny on a very serious matter. We have women who are training to compete in these sports who lose scholarship and sponsorship opportunities, who get injured, who are compelled to be in dressing rooms or their intimate spaces with men, and that is absolutely unfair."
McMahon pointed out that her office also used a clip of Newsom, but a more recent one of the governor saying on his podcast that he believes letting trans athletes compete in women's and girls sports is "deeply unfair."
"Here's what was so funny: We also put online the actual footage of Gavin Newsom saying it was unfair on his own podcast. So I had sent him a letter. I said, basically, 'Put your money where your mouth is, because you talk about how this is unfair, but you don't do anything to change,'" McMahon said.
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McMahon said in an appearance on "Fox & Friends" last Wednesday that California would be at risk of losing its federal funding for its K-12 schools if the requirements are not met.
A press release by the U.S. Department of Education states that California's high school sports league, the CIF and the California Department of Education (CDE) have 10 days (from last Wednesday) to amend their policy or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Newsom's office responded to the Education Department's announcement later last Wednesday.
"It wouldn't be a day ending in 'Y' without the Trump Administration threatening to defund California. Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days - dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won't stick," Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon told Fox News Digital.
The Department of Education and other branches of President Donald Trump's administration are fighting the issue on multiple fronts, with an active lawsuit against the state of Maine for refusing to comply with Trump's mandate on the issue. The administration is also in a standoff with Minnesota over the issue.
McMahon, the DOE and the Trump administration as a whole took a big step forward in their campaign to combat trans athletes in women's and girls sports on Tuesday, announcing an agreement with the University of Pennsylvania.
The agreement ensured UPenn apologizes to all women's swimmers who were affected by the inclusion of trans swimmer Lia Thomas in the 2021-22 season, all of Thomas' program accolades are rescinded, and the school will adopt biology-based definitions for the words "male" and "female."
McMahon hopes UPenn's agreement sends a message to states that are defying Trump.
"Our sincere hope is that they absolutely recognize what they're going to have to do relative to comply with Title IX. It is the law," McMahon said. "There are federal funds that have been withheld and withdrawn, so there's penalties involved in this. But it's actually just the right thing to do. It's common sense to do, that men should not compete in women's sports."
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