The Biden administration spent millions of taxpayer dollars on at least six transgender experiments on mice, National Institutes of Health records show.
President Trump mentioned the transgender mice experiments during his address to Congress on Tuesday night.
âEight million dollars for making mice transgender. This is real,â Trump said as the chamber erupted in laughter.
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â Autism Capital đ§Š (@AutismCapital) March 5, 2025
CNN quickly spun up a fact check, saying Trump âfalsely claimedâ the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified $8 million for âmaking mice transgender.â The outlet cited $477,121 in government funding for three projects involving giving estrogen to monkeys to test how it affects their susceptibility to HIV.
The White House responded with a fact sheet citing six studies involving gender ideology and mice, all funded by the NIH and costing American taxpayers over $8 million.
One study treated both male and female mice with estrogen to discover how to better âtreat and prevent asthma in cis and transgender women.â That study cost taxpayers over $3.1 million over four years starting in 2021.
Another study that cost over $1.2 million and began last year used mice to explore how testosterone affects the reproductive systems of âtransgender malesâ or biological women who take testosterone.
Another study last year on âgender affirming hormone therapyâ in mice injected male mice with estrogen and female mice with testosterone to analyze the relationship between the hormone drugs, the gut microbiome, and skeletal maturation. That study cost the taxpayers $735,113.
One study used mice to explore how taking testosterone affects breast cancer in the âunderserved transmasculine communityâ or biological females who identify as male. That study from 2023 cost just under $300,000.
A study that has cost $2.5 million since 2019 gave mice both puberty blockers and testosterone to explore the effects of testosterone on the reproductive systems of trans-identifying females. The study said it âdeveloped a mouse model to mimic T treatment for FTM gender transitionâ and found the mice âmanifest defects in ovarian architectureâ and see changes in egg development.
Finally, one study developed a âmouse model of gender-affirming hormone therapyâ to âtest the immune responses of âcisâ vs. âtransâ mice to a HIV vaccine.â That study began last year and cost the taxpayers $455,120.
âThe Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual),â the White House said.
Frivolous scientific research is a target of Elon Muskâs DOGE, which was tasked by Trump with rooting out federal waste.
Gender ideology has become a searing political and cultural issue across the country over the last several years.
Trump signed several executive orders during his first weeks in office banning males from womenâs sports, defining sex as male and female, and pulling federal funding from schools that promote gender ideology.