President Donald Trump's administration has paused $175 million in federal funding to the University of Pennsylvania for having allowed transgender athlete Lia Thomas to compete on its women's swimming team, according to a senior White House official.

A White House account posted on X, formerly Twitter, a video clip of a Fox Business report about the cuts Wednesday morning along with the comment: "Promises made, promises kept." The funds are tied to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense, the official said.

Penn in a statement said it had not received any official notification of a suspension of funds.

"It is important to note, however, that Penn has always followed NCAA and Ivy League policies regarding student participation on athletic teams," a Penn spokesperson said. "We have been in the past, and remain today, in full compliance with the regulations that apply not only to Penn, but all of our NCAA and Ivy League peer institutions."

The move to pause funding to Penn continues the Trump administration's efforts to withhold federal funding from universities that are carrying out policies at odds with the president's. The administration earlier this month canceled $400 million in contracts and grants to Columbia University over its handling of antisemitism complaints.

For Penn, which receives about $1 billion annually in federal funding, $175 million represents about 17.5% of the total. In 2024, Penn received $693.6 million from the Department of Health and Human Services and nearly $52.2 million from the Department of Defense. It is not clear which funds are among those the Trump administration is targeting and what they are used for.

Penn already had been concerned about the potential loss of $250 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health ― which is part of the Health and Human Services funding ― because of another Trump order. And with a $22.3 billion endowment, it is watching closely the debate over raising the excise tax on endowments from 1.4% to as much as 35%.

The endowment supplies about 20% of the school's operating budget, helping to fund undergraduate and graduate financial aid, faculty salaries, research, and other services, the university has said.

"The threat to withhold federal funding is an attempt to intimidate the university administration into throwing our students and our colleagues under the bus," said Amy Offner, president of Penn's chapter of the American Association of University Professors. "Penn should not take the bait."

She cited the university's large endowment and said Penn must "mobilize its resources to stand up to these threats, to sustain life-sustaining research in the United States, and to say we are not sacrificing our students, ... our faculty ... (and) the patients at our hospitals in response to these threats.

"A concession now will simply embolden them to come back for more."

Offner noted that Penn labor groups will hold a campus rally Thursday and present Penn with a petition, urging several actions including maintaining equal treatment for transgender and LGBTQ members of the community, counteracting federal funding cuts, and refraining from censorship of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

City Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, whose district includes Penn, called the freezing of funds a "deplorable decision."

"These funds have nothing to do with transgender student athletes — this is nothing more than a hollow pretext to target our community," she said.

But Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of Thomas' who is from Connecticut, hailed the decision to withhold funding.

"This is what I voted for," she wrote on X.

Trump's administration has opposed allowing transgender athletes to compete in female sports. The federal Education Department in February told the National Collegiate Athletic Association it wanted all records, titles, and awards that went to transgender female athletes to be restored to cisgender women.

And on Wednesday, the department notified Maine that its state department of education's policies violate federal antidiscrimination law by "allowing boys to compete in girls' sports and boys to occupy girls' intimate facilities" and threatened to limit the department's access to funding unless it comes into compliance.

At Penn, Thomas, a transgender woman, was named Ivy League champion and broke records at the Women's Swimming and Diving Championships held at Harvard University in February 2022. Her participation on Penn's team drew national attention and stirred debate over trans athletes' right to play sports.

"I've always viewed myself as just a swimmer. It's what I've done for so long; it's what I love," the Austin, Texas, native told Sports Illustrated in 2022. She has said she did not transition for a competitive advantage, but to "to be happy, to be true to myself."

Attempts to reach Thomas for comment Wednesday were unsuccessful.

She performed on the men's team as a freshman and sophomore and competed in a few meets in junior year before COVID-19 canceled the next season. She returned in August 2021 for her senior year as a member of the women's team and posted some of the fastest times in the nation among college women.

Some teammates were supportive. Others were not.

Three of her former teammates sued the school last month, saying inclusion of the trans athlete violated their rights. Thomas' participation "deprived" the swimmers of "equal opportunities as women to compete and win," the suit alleged. And they said giving Thomas access to the women's locker room failed to protect their privacy.

Trump, a day after the suit was filed, signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from women's sports, and the federal Education Department subsequently opened an investigation into Penn over reported "violations of Title IX" in athletics.

The White House official said the funding pause is not the result of the Education Department investigation.

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