California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office faced backlash after posting a controversial social media clip mocking U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s announcement that California violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports, according to Fox News. The post featured an old WWE clip from the early 2000s showing McMahon being body-slammed by Glenn Thomas Jacobs, known as “Kane,” during a “Monday Night Raw” episode. This clip drew criticism because it depicted a man physically overpowering a woman, a key argument used by opponents of biological males competing in female sports.

McMahon, who is the wife of WWE founder Vince McMahon and a former CEO of WWE, had issued a 10-day ultimatum for California to amend its policies or risk losing federal funding for K-12 schools. The U.S. Department of Education stated that California’s high school sports league (CIF) and the California Department of Education (CDE) must change their policies or face referral to the Department of Justice.

Newsom’s office responded to the Education Department’s warning by dismissing it as “dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality,” with a spokesperson saying the threat “won’t stick.” Meanwhile, the California Department of Education doubled down on the state’s decision stating, “The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so.”

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The incident sparked strong reactions on social media, with critics accusing Newsom’s office of trivializing the serious issue of fairness in sports. Some users, on the other hand, highlighted the irony of using a clip showing male physical dominance over a woman to mock concerns about transgender athletes in girls’ sports.

“This is literally of a video of a man taking down a woman easily because of how biologically strong a man is,” one commenter on X wrote, adding, “Thank you for the prime example of the injustice you’re allowing in the state of California.”

“So a man easily destroying a woman is how you want to relay that boys belong in girls sports?” another X user commented.

This controversy suggests that the debate over biological males participating in female sports remains unresolved in some parts of the country, even as initiatives to safeguard women’s athletics continue nationwide.