Donald Trump’s immigrant crackdown stats draw major comparison from Riley Gaines amid WNBA’s dildo debacle

The WNBA’s recent dildo-related incidents have sparked widespread attention in the past few weeks. On Thursday, political activist and former All-American swimmer Riley Gaines made perhaps the wildest comparison yet, linking the controversy to stats from Donald Trump’s immigrant crackdown during his presidency.

Gaines made the comparison in a video, which was posted by OutKick on X (formerly Twitter).

"Major, major numbers from the Trump administration reporting that in the past three months there have been zero immigrants to cross the border illegally, which is fantastic news," Gaines said. "So, in looking at these headlines, looking at the WNBA, there have been more green dildos thrown on court at WNBA games than there have been illegal crossings at the border in the past three months. We are so back."

She doubled down on her comments on Friday, retweeting the post with a short message.

"Insane but 100% factual statistic lol," she wrote.

Dildos being thrown during WNBA games has become a recurring feature in recent weeks. It first began during a game between the Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries in July and was further repeated during a game in Chicago. The latest incident took place during a contest between the LA Sparks and Indiana Fever at the Crypto.com Arena, marking the third instance within the space of three weeks.

Despite being a hotly debated topic in women’s sports, the comparison to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown marks a first, as the incident continues to spark conversations and debates across the country.

Donald Trump once offered a shoutout to Riley Gaines before signing an executive order banning men from women's sports

Donald Trump has made headlines during his second term as president, but few moves have impacted the sports world like his executive order banning men from women’s sports. In February, he signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order, aimed at barring transgender women athletes of all ages from competing on girls’ and women’s teams.

During the signing of the executive order on Feb. 5, Trump offered a shoutout to Riley Gaines for her work in empowering this move.

"Riley was a 12-time All-American who sacrificed countless hours in the pool... then the league forced her to share a spot on the podium with a male swimmer who took her trophy while the media celebrated this stolen glory," Trump said.

The order has triggered significant changes in the sports world, most notably the stripping of NCAA titles from swimmer Lia Thomas.

About the author

Arian Kashyap is a basketball journalist at Sportskeeda with over two years of experience at Essentially Sports and Spice Bite and a Bachelor's in Physical Education and Sports Sciences.

Arian's favorite team is the Miami Heat and it’s mainly down to Dwyane Wade being his favorite player of all time. Arian loved how explosive Wade was as a player and he had all the attributes, whether that be shooting, defending or passing. Arian really liked how he won titles both with and without a dynasty behind him.

Arian has also worked with Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools and was the manager for a Delhi-based women’s team called Garwhal Untied. Garwhal won the Delhi league and were runners-up during his tenure.

Arian has judged essay writing competitions for the Commonwealth Students Welfare Group of India in 2023 and was a part of the U-14 team for the Bhaichung Bhutia Football Schools academy that qualified for the AIFF Round in 2023.

When not working or watching sports, Arian likes riding his motorcycle and reading.

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Edited by R. Elahi