Warning: This article contains discussion of discrimination against the trans community which some readers may find distressing

A transgender athlete who won a school track race has issued a frank response to critics.

AB Hernandez from California, who identifies as a transgender woman, shared the podium alongside her fellow athletes after crushing the state’s high school track-and-field championship on May 31.

The 16-year-old, who joins the team at Jurupa Valley High School in Southern California, took home the gold for the triple jump, finishing with a final of 42 feet 2 inches, and shared first place with Kira Grant Hatcher, who jumped 40 feet 5 inches.

The California Interscholastic Federation altered the rules before the event, mandating that any competitors who lost to a trans athlete would not lose their ranking, meaning Hernandez’s performance would not affect or displace any other female winners.

AB Hernandez (centre) shared the podium at a high school track-and-field championship last month (KCRA 3)

The rule also allowed an additional biological female student athlete to compete in each category where Hernandez was set to perform.

However, despite the clarification in fairness, Hernandez’s involvement in the sport has sparked backlash over the last few months, with dozens of protesters turning up to track meets and before the competition to challenge her participation.

Now, the high school junior has spoken out with a simple message to her critics.

“It’s definitely crazy, I get a lot of hate comments, but I’m like, ‘I don’t care,’” she said in an interview with KCRA. “[I’m a] 16-year-old girl with a mad attitude. You think I’m going to care?”

The youngster slammed the protesters rocking up high school events as plain ‘weird’.

“It’s just weird at this point,” Hernandez said, and while demonstrators gathered around the stadium gates to protest, the teen said people were mostly supportive inside the event.

There were dozens of protestors at the event (KCRA 3)

“I wasn’t expecting any of it, to be honest. I was just expecting to go out there and compete alone, but the support was amazing,” she added.

“They really made my experience perfect. I will forever be grateful for them because they helped me get through the weekend.”

Hernandez also tied in the varsity high jump final against two girls, Jillene Wetteland and Lelanie Laruelle, where she again shared the podium with them due to the newly passed California policy.

“I did what I wanted to do,” Hernandez said. “My performance was all I wanted to be good. So all this backlash … I performed my best, so that’s all I cared about.”

The protests came following intense backlash over the federation’s handling of transgender athletes like Hernandez and their success, including from President Donald Trump who had threatened to pull the plug on funds to the Golden State over its policy.

Taking to his platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: “California, under the leadership of Radical Left Democrat Gavin Newscum [sic], continues to ILLEGALLY allow ‘MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.'”

The rule change allowed the student athletes to share the podium (KCRA 3)

The POTUS ordered the state that federal funding would be ‘held back, maybe permanently’ unless California obeyed his February executive order to protect women’s sports.

Trump also had a heated debate with Maine governor Janet Mills over the issue earlier this year, accusing the state of breaking Title IX rules, which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex.

He threatened to withdraw federal funds for schools of around $250 million, though the White House later agreed to release the funds amid a legal challenge.

The Justice Department also announced plans last month that it would investigate if California’s School Success and Opportunity Act, which allows trans students to compete in women’s sport, is in conflict with Title IX.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT national hotline at 888-843-4564, available Monday to Friday 4pm-12am ET and 12pm-5pm ET on Saturdays.

Donald Trump has weighed in on whether his son, Donald Trump Jr., would consider running for president.

During his presidential campaign last year, Trump’s eldest child, known as ‘Don’ for short, was very outspoken in support of his father being reelected and also reportedly lobbied for JD Vance to become Vice President.

Trump Jr. also hosts a biweekly podcast Triggered with Don Jr. where he addresses various issues within politics.

But does the 45th and 47th US president’s son – who he shares with late ex-wife Ivana – have a future as a president himself?

During an interview with the New York Post journalist Miranda Devine on the Pod Force One podcast, Trump was asked if Trump Jr. might run for president himself.

Donald Trump praised all of his children (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“I don’t know. I mean I don’t know. I think all of them probably have a future in politics, frankly. And Don is very good. A good guy. He’s an outdoorsman,” he said.

Trump’s apprehension about saying a specific ‘yes’ could be due to Trump Jr. explicitly stating on his own X account that ‘while I’ll never 100% rule it out down the line, I have ZERO interest in running for office in [20]28 or anytime soon’.

President Trump instead suggested that all of his children could have a future in politics and boasted that they ‘were born very smart’ during the interview, released on Wednesday (June 11).

He added: “Eric has done a fantastic job. Barron is great. He is very tall and good. Ivanka, you know Ivanka? She’s so great. And Tiffany has done really well. She went to a great law school and did very well. Always a good student.”

Donald Trump Jr. previously addressed whether he would run for president in 2028 (Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Barron Trump, 19, has received a lot of attention in recent months after enrolling as a student at New York University studying at the prestigious Stern School of Business. But also because of his tall stature of 6ft 7in.

Speaking about his youngest son, who he shares with First Lady Melania Trump, the president told Fox News in March: “If you look at my kids, all of my kids, they’ve been very good, they’ve been very smart.

“They love our country and they’re proud of their father.”

Barron Trump went back to college after his father’s inauguration in January (Kevin Lamarque – Pool/Getty Images)

When asked which of Barron’s talents stand out – politics or business – Trump said it was his technological abilities that were ‘unbelievable’.

Recalling an example, Trump said: “I turn off his laptop, I said, ‘Oh good,’ and I go back five minutes later, he’s got his laptop. I said, ‘How’d you do that?’

“‘None of your business, Dad’.

“He’s got an unbelievable aptitude in technology.”

Elon Musk’s estranged daughter has reacted to her dad’s online spat with President Donald Trump and the gloves are off.

It’s no secret that Musk and his daughter have been on bad terms for quite some time now, particularly with the Tesla CEO’s insistence that his ‘son’ had died in the wake of his daughter’s transition.

But in the following years, more and more has been said from the father which has led to his daughter, Vivian Wilson, to lash out at him.

Three years ago, an interview with the Financial Times, the X CEO disclosed his relationship with his daughter is strained due to her school preaching ‘full-on communism’ where ‘if you’re rich, you’re evil’.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been feuding (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

However, the billionaire went on to say that he had a ‘good relationship’ with his other seven children.

He added: “Can’t win them all.”

Now that it’s 2025 and we’ve all seen the absolute carnage that the last two weeks have brought between him and Trump with their online battle, Vivian has come out to slam her father, proving that their relationship is still rocky.

It all began when Musk and Trump fell out just before his DOGE tenure came to an end.

The pair have now been covered in all news sites because of their scathing comments to one another on X and Truth Social, respectively.

Musk and Trump used to have a bromance until the tech billionaire’s departure from the administration, but things came to a head when he criticized the president’s ‘big beautiful bill’ and Trump later claimed he was ‘disappointed’ by the SpaceX founder’s response.

But aside from the politics, Musk dropped the mother of all accusations when he claimed that Trump didn’t release all of the Jeffrey Epstein files because he’s named in them.

“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” he alleged. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Now that the dust has kind of settled on the immediate fallout of the claim, Vivian has stepped up to reignite the online criticism of her dad.

The 21-year-old referenced the feud on her Instagram Stories with a video of herself laughing captioned: “I love being proven right.”

Vivian Wilson has weighed in (Instagram/@vivllainous)

She then said, “I do not want to comment”, before bursting in to laughter.

Vivian followed her Story with a Threads post the song ‘Job Application’ by Chase Icon as she wrote underneath: “Such beauty in life.”

So, at least one person is finding joy in the crazy whirlwind of their fallout.

Anyway, the latest update on their feud came when White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the whole thing and called it an ‘unfortunate episode’.

Speaking to CNN, Leavitt said: “This is an unfortunate episode from Elon, who is unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted. The President is focused on passing this historic piece of legislation and making our country great again.”

President Trump is taking aim at the transgender community once more.

Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders since returning to office less than a month ago.

One order sees transgender people being prohibited from serving in the military, while another will see transgender women no longer housed in female prisons.

Now, in a third transgender-focused order signed yesterday (February 5), Trump wants transgender women to be banned from competing in female sports.

As per the order, which is titled ‘Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports’, the Trump administration wants the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ‘change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject’ ahead of the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

The order empowers the Secretary of State’s Office to pressure the IOC to amend standards governing Olympic sporting events ‘to promote fairness, safety and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction’.

Los Angeles is hosting the next Olympic Games (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for LA28)

As well as this, the order wants the ‘immediate reinforcement’ against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms, Sky News reports.

The order also calls for the secretary of state and the Department of Homeland Security to ‘review and adjust, as needed, policies permitting admission to the United States of males seeking to participate in women’s sports’.

There is no evidence male athletes have competed in women’s Olympics events.

Speaking before signing the controversial order, Trump said: “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.

“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”

President Trump has now signed three executive orders targeted at the trans community (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Addressing Los Angeles hosting the Olympics, he continued: “In Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes. We’re not going to let it happen.

“Just to make sure, I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the US while identifying as women athletes to try and get into the games.”

While officials with the LA28 organising committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment, outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach said in December that Olympic organisers were ‘very confident’ they could work with the Trump administration, says PA.

If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the LGBT national hotline at 888-843-4564, available Monday to Friday 4pm-12am ET and 12pm-5pm ET on Saturdays.