Hatred of the WNBA&#8217;s star player Caitlin Clark reached comical heights last week, when WNBA players voted Clark as the 11th best guard in the league.
When players placed votes for the WNBA All-Star Game, they determined Clark wasn&#8217;t even among the top 10 best guards, despite Clark putting up impressive numbers and setting league records. The astonishing vote marked just another anti-Clark moment, and made waves in some sports media circles.
Sports commentator Colin Cowherd, for example, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DaVwBbkJsLw/">said</a> the vote was so absurd it was &#8220;funny.&#8221; &#8220;The animosity toward Caitlin Clark — it&#8217;s so petty,&#8221; Cowherd added after rattling off impressive Clark statistics.
Though she entered the league just three seasons ago, Clark has already broken WNBA records. In her rookie season, she set the WNBA single-season assists record with 337 assists and established the WNBA single-game assists record with 19 assists in a single game. She also became the first rookie in WNBA history to record a triple-double.
Fans also love Clark. The Midwestern native has brought unprecedented attention to the WNBA and helped drive record-breaking attendance, viewership, and merchandise sales.
During her rookie season, the league recorded its highest total attendance in more than two decades, with attendance increasing 48% compared to the previous season. And according to retail sales data, Clark has surpassed NBA star LeBron James in basketball jersey sales, ranking second only to Stephen Curry.
The jealousy of Clark goes beyond just fellow players in the league. Earlier this month, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert did not include Clark on the league’s 30-year commemorative poster.
Clark&#8217;s teammate Sophie Cunningham <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reels/DaJ1gwgvbnG/">said the omission</a> was a “joke,&#8221; adding, “You are leaving out a generational — the best player to ever go through the WNBA.”
Cunningham&#8217;s “Show Me Something” podcast co-host West Wilson said Engelbert was “jealous” of Clark. “She won’t give her the platform — it’s f*cking so weird,&#8221; he told Cunningham.
Clark is also a routine target of excessive physicality or cheap shots on the court. She faced several controversial hard fouls during her rookie season, and this year, Clark appeared to be struck in the throat by Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas while Clark was on the floor.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-star-sophie-cunningham-wont-diss-trump-after-white-house-meme">WNBA Star Sophie Cunningham Won’t Diss Trump After White House Meme</a>

GettyImages-2282441029

Latest Stunt Shows Just How Much WNBA Hates Star Player Caitlin Clark

Basketball

Caitlin Clark

WNBA

A WNBA coach expressed disappointment with her team after failing to win for &#8220;the gays&#8221; on Pride Night.
&#8220;We should’ve done it for the gays,” Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve joked after the team lost 84-79 to the Washington Mystics on Sunday night. “We didn’t get it done.”
Reeve made the remarks during a <a href="https://www.fox9.com/sports/cheryl-reeve-after-lynx-pride-night-loss-we-shouldve-done-gays">post-game press conference</a> after a reporter explained that Minnesota had a near-sold-out crowd of close to 12,000 fans. The Lynx were one of twelve teams to host a “Pride Night” during the 2026 WNBA season, with each franchise scheduled to host one at some point throughout the end of the month.
For many sports fans, Reeve&#8217;s comment highlights how deeply identity politics have become embedded in professional sports. In March, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/nba-team-drops-player-over-gay-pride-comments-sparks-backlash-from-christian-athletes?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=NBA+Team+Drops+Player+Over+Gay+Pride+Comments%2C+Sparks+Backlash+From+Christian+Athletes">NBA dropped a player</a> after he declared the league&#8217;s LGBT celebrations as &#8220;unrighteous.&#8221; 
“The world can proclaim LGBTQ, right?” Jaden Ivey <a href="https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2038738011270316391" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. “They proclaim ‘Pride Month’ in the NBA. They proclaim it. They show it to the world. They say, ‘Come join us for Pride Month to celebrate unrighteousness.’ They proclaim it. They proclaim it on the billboards. They proclaim it on the streets. Unrighteousness.”
Recently, major and minor league baseball teams hosted “Pride Nights&#8221; that were met with controversy. 
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Landen Roupp stood up for his Christian faith by inscribing a Bible verse in silver next to the rainbow logo on his cap, The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/giants-pitcher-refuses-to-hide-christian-faith-during-pride-night">reported</a>.
“The rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant with us, and we as believers stand firm in that … There’s no hate at all,” Roupp told reporters. “It’s just what I stand for and what I stand in, I believe in God.”
The York Revolution, a minor league team, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/baseball-team-forfeits-game-over-pride-jerseys">forfeited</a> its game after players declined to participate in Pride Night.
Minnesota currently sits atop the WNBA standings at 13-4, with the loss to the Mystics being its second since May 17, 2026.

Washington Mystics v Minnesota Lynx

WNBA Coach Bummed After Letting Down ‘The Gays’

WNBA Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said it&#8217;s likely that elite 8th grade male basketball players could beat professional female athletes, noting men&#8217;s obvious physical advantages over women.
Cunningham&#8217;s comments, which were made on her podcast &#8220;Show Me Something,&#8221; completely contradict the Left-wing transgender narrative claiming that what determines gender is self-described identity; or, further, that males don&#8217;t really have physical advantages over females.
&#8220;This is my personal opinion,&#8221; Cunningham told her co-host West Wilson, Outkick <a href="https://www.outkick.com/sports/sophie-cunningham-backs-michael-porter-jr-8th-grade-boys-wnba-stars">reported</a>. &#8220;If you are a professional football player, basketball player, really any sport &#8230; to me, if you&#8217;re in that elite level group, yeah, you should be able to beat the girls. I&#8217;m not surprised by that.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s probably true. I don&#8217;t want to be unrealistic or delusional,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;Men are just stronger, bigger, athletic. They just are a different build. So if you put them up against females, I&#8217;m like, well, yeah they&#8217;re gonna win, duh.&#8221;
Cunningham, who is set to become a free agent, made the remarks in response to NBA player Michael Lamar Porter Jr., who recently said he thinks elite male athletes as young as 8th grade could beat WNBA players. Porter said he was merely speaking from experience, referencing a time in middle school when he apparently dominated in a practice against Cunningham, then playing college ball.
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&#8220;I&#8217;ma go, probably, 8th grade, because I have real experience doing this,&#8221; Porter said, when asked what age elite males could beat pro females. &#8220;They went to University of Missouri, and I was still a young dude, and they had me playing on the scout team, and they had a few WNBA players on their team, like Sophie Cunningham, and a couple others. I think I was in the 7th or 8th grade going dumb. So, I have real-life experience.&#8221;
&#8220;I wish this would stop being a conversation ‘cause it should be common sense, but it’s just not,&#8221; Porter added.
&#8220;If women are saying, ‘He couldn&#8217;t beat them&#8217; &#8212; yeah, he could,&#8221; Cunningham agreed. &#8220;Any NBA star or player could beat a female in high school &#8230; I just don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s a fair matchup.&#8221;
The Fever guard further defended Porter, saying that he was asked his opinion and answered honestly and calling the &#8220;context&#8221; of his comments &#8220;fair.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Sophie Cunningham, who Michael Porter Jr. claims he beat in a Mizzou basketball practice in 8th grade, reacted to MPJ’s recent comments:
“I mean, it’s probably true. I think, if you are a professional [athlete], if you’re in that elite level group, yea you should be able to… <a href="https://t.co/pVbrxyYShV">pic.twitter.com/pVbrxyYShV</a>
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) <a href="https://twitter.com/CourtsideBuzzX/status/1992666783627833612?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-player-rips-refs-for-allowing-cheap-shots-on-caitlin-clark-says-she-had-to-act">WNBA Player Rips Refs For Allowing Cheap Shots On Caitlin Clark, Says She Had To Act</a>

Chicago Sky v Indiana Fever

WNBA Star Throws Cold Water On Transgender Narrative

Social Issues

Sports

Transgender

Transgender Athletes

U.S.

ESPN, a global sports media network that has remained woke despite the prevailing zeitgeist having moved away from that perspective, on Thursday put out a problematic post on X celebrating itself, captioned, “All the icons. All the moments. All of @espn. All in one place.”
The problem? The professional athletes pictured in the post — which was later deleted — were heavily dominated by WNBA players, a sport that has low attendance and has to be propped up by the NBA.
Various social media posts counted the number of professional athletes, and the results indicated that ESPN, once again, seemed to be shilling for a woke perspective instead of celebrating the sports that have a genuinely heavy turnout.
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“If you were an alien you would believe from this picture that the most popular sport in the United States is the WNBA. ESPN is out of its damn mind,” Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
If you were an alien you would believe from this picture that the most popular sport in the United States is the WNBA. ESPN is out of its damn mind. <a href="https://t.co/zTWMRS4ZXX">https://t.co/zTWMRS4ZXX</a>
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1958909522732367890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
David Cone, co-host of Crain &amp; Company, posted a hilarious meme referencing “A Clockwork Orange”:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ESPN making sure I watch the WNBA <a href="https://t.co/k3TpkfUJAD">https://t.co/k3TpkfUJAD</a> <a href="https://t.co/xppktxG3dC">pic.twitter.com/xppktxG3dC</a>
— David Cone (@davidadamcone) <a href="https://twitter.com/davidadamcone/status/1958905364478415055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Fellow co-host Blain Crain echoed, “20 WNBA players and no Scottie Scheffler? ESPN is cooked.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A story in 2 parts. <a href="https://t.co/DU3FEt6HX9">pic.twitter.com/DU3FEt6HX9</a>
— NeitherSchnierOrThere (@Cathew_) <a href="https://twitter.com/Cathew_/status/1958927099151950270?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Former MLB All-Star Zack Cozart chimed in, “Having more WNBA players than MLB players shows u how big a joke ESPN is.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
having more WNBA players than MLB players shows u how big a joke ESPN is <a href="https://t.co/GR7hzpwjqM">https://t.co/GR7hzpwjqM</a>
— Zack Cozart (@zack_cozart) <a href="https://twitter.com/zack_cozart/status/1958862220416168152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“There are 20 WNBA players on here, 18 of whom most people don’t recognize. Yet Scottie Scheffler, the most dominant athlete today, isn’t included. Why?” Bobby Burack of Outkick noted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
There are 20 WNBA players on here, 18 of whom most people don’t recognize. Yet Scottie Scheffler, the most dominant athlete today, isn’t included. Why? <a href="https://t.co/Q6N9ZBf3t4">https://t.co/Q6N9ZBf3t4</a>
— Bobby Burack (@burackbobby_) <a href="https://twitter.com/burackbobby_/status/1958889640896659572?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
“3 NHL players. 3 MLB players. 20 WNBA players. Tells you everything you need to know about ESPN,” the Utah Football Fans Podcast snapped.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
3 NHL players. 3 MLB players. 20 WNBA players. Tells you everything you need to know about ESPN
— Utah Football Fans Podcast (@UtahFBFans) <a href="https://twitter.com/UtahFBFans/status/1958758689617088707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
A baseball analyst and author posted Shane Gillis’ joke about the WNBA at the ESPYs:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://t.co/kX57cXM7J3">pic.twitter.com/kX57cXM7J3</a>
— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) <a href="https://twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/1958738493573628362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Of course, ESPN has featured woke perspectives for years; Fox News delineated some in a 2022 <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/espn-woke-moments-america-bashing-july-4-china?utm_source=chatgpt.com">article</a> which listed, “Sarah Spain calls Rays players ‘bigots’ for not wearing gay pride patch,’” “On-air tears after Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade,” “ESPN’s Elle Duncan urges fathers to advocate for their daughters&#8217; right to have abortions,” and ‘Moment of silence to protest Florida’s parental rights bill.”

ESPN

ESPN Mocked For Prioritizing WNBA Virtue Signaling Over Athletic Achievement

Wokeness

I expect to cover a lot of cultural madness in my line of work. But I never thought I’d ever find myself voluntarily writing about sex toys.
But over the past few weeks, spectators of WNBA games have taken to throwing rubber phalluses on the court during games.
And so, here we are.
I’m not going to pretend I’ve been a solemn moralist about this from the start. Like many of you, my group texts lit up with this story. The memes? Outstanding. Some of the best work the internet has produced in months. Humor has a way of finding you in moments of absurdity, and I laughed out loud.
But somewhere between a chuckle and a thousand retweets, we blew past a very obvious line.
There’s a difference between laughing about something and endorsing the thing itself. And this? This isn’t streaking, where the joke is on the guy who gets embarrassed, tackled, and escorted out. This is a targeted attempt to humiliate the athletes playing. It’s not about the clown in the stands — it’s about degrading the women on the court.
And one can all but guarantee it’s been men every single time. No woman is throwing this. We’ve all been to enough sporting events to know this is some guy in his late twenties, liquored up, in ripped jeans. Or, as <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/article/nyc-man-wearing-beavis-butthead-064652224.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new images</a> have exposed the first person to be caught, a guy in a Beavis and Butthead shirt. This stuff writes itself.
Spoiler: this guy’s not a hero. He’s a creep.
He’s also not an athlete — his toss didn’t make it to the court, and instead <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/12-year-old-girl-struck-sex-toy-thrown-wnba-game-brooklyn-suspect-soug-rcna224292" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struck a 12-year-old girl</a> who proceeded to “freak out.”
As of this writing, we’ve had four of these incidents, not counting the one above. They’ve happened in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and most recently in Seattle. You could almost imagine Vegas laying odds on it, and in fact, they have. According to Legal Sports Betting and SCCG Management, prop bets have included:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Will the next dildo still be green? — Yes at –200, No at +150.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Color odds: rainbow at +500, pink at +300, blue at +1400.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Even wagers on how it gets removed—kicked off the court vs. picked up by hand, both around –120.</li>
</ul>
It’s the same energy as the “streaker” prop bet before the Super Bowl — except it makes an unwilling punchline out of the athletes on the court.
Here’s the awkward truth for WNBA fans: the stunt worked. It generated more buzz for the league than any actual highlight this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Google search trends for “WNBA” spiked higher in those moments than they did for last year’s Finals. On one level, you could call it a marketing success story. On the other hand, you could call it what it is — a sad commentary on the state of sports attention spans.
The players themselves have been clear. Chicago Sky center Elizabeth Williams called it “super disrespectful,” and “really immature,” and said that “whoever is doing it needs to grow up.” Sophie Cunningham took to social media: “Stop throwing dildos on the court … you’re going to hurt one of us.” Cecilia Zandalasini, who had to keep playing through one of the incidents, said, “I’ve never seen anything like that … we stayed locked in.”
Imagine working your entire life to reach the top of your sport — grueling training, constant travel, the pressure of competing at the highest level — and now that you’ve made it, instead of talking about a game-winning three, you have to talk about people chucking sex toys at you.
The WNBA isn’t my go-to watch. But that’s irrelevant here. Respect is not conditional on entertainment value. I don’t have to love your sport to acknowledge your dignity as a professional athlete. And a woman!
This also isn’t happening in a vacuum. Kids go to these games. Parents bring their daughters to watch their heroes in action, to dream about someday playing on that same court. What does it say about our society if those kids have to watch security scramble to clean up a sex toy, or worse, duck out of the way as one flies through the air?
To the inevitable “lighten up, it’s just a joke” crowd — no. There’s a baseline of decency that keeps sports a place where everyone can enjoy themselves. We used to know this instinctively. But now we’re so addicted to viral moments that the only question is whether someone caught it on their phone.
Again, I’m no prude. I’ve laughed at this. I’ve probably laughed harder than I should have. But part of being an adult is knowing when the joke has gone too far. We live in a culture that already does enough to cheapen sex, mock boundaries, and chip away at basic respect. We don’t need to import that into women’s basketball.
The irony is impossible to ignore. For years, women’s sports advocates have been fighting to protect female athletes from unfair competition — most of it coming from men trying to insert themselves, literally, into the women’s category. Now, they’re being forced to dodge rubber reminders of that fight mid-game.
This whole situation has been fun, but it’s time to bring the national conversation back to things that matter. If we’re talking about women’s sports, we should be talking about removing male anatomy from women’s sports, not flinging rubber replicas onto the hardwood.
Because once the gag becomes more important than the game, we’re no longer sports fans. We’re just another symptom of the cultural rot we claim to be laughing at.
Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

WNBA Finals – Game Four

The WNBA Sex Toy Incident Was Funny. But It’s Gone Too Far.

Women's sports

A big controversy has now broken out over WNBA games — people are throwing sex toys on the court.
By any normal stretch of human behavior, this is a bad thing to do. You should not go to games and throw sex toys on the court. It&#8217;s obscene. It&#8217;s ridiculous. And no matter how much you dislike the WNBA, you probably shouldn&#8217;t go there and throw a giant sex toy on the court, right? As a respectable human being, you probably shouldn&#8217;t do it.
Is it funny? Sure. A lot of things are funny. A lot of violative and transgressive behavior is funny.
But that doesn&#8217;t mean it&#8217;s good.
The internet culture and subculture have become so reactionary, so reactive, and so disagreeable that this pattern is now driving economic decision-making. An article in The New York Times titled, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6541093/2025/08/07/wnba-sex-toy-incidents-cryptocurrency-group-scheme/">WNBA sex toy incidents may be linked to cryptocurrency groups’ money scheme</a>” reads like a fever dream: 
<blockquote>Late in the first half of a Los Angeles Sparks-Indiana Fever game on Tuesday night, a neon green sex toy thrown from the stands landed on the floor of Crypto.com Arena, at the feet of Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham. Simultaneously, a group of people during an audio livestream on X reveled in the moment and celebrated its potential to help boost the value of a particular memecoin, a cryptocurrency deriving from an internet meme but traded through very real markets online. The coin was created July 28, the day before the first occurrence of a sex toy being thrown on a WNBA court. As of Thursday, the coin’s worth had nearly tripled in its first week.
“Someone is tweeting that there’s one at the Sparks game,” one person said on the stream. “That is literally the best case scenario that we could possibly imagine,” another replied, because the sex toy had fallen near Cunningham, who had previously posted a plea for spectators not to throw the objects onto the court, which was met with numerous replies of memes involving the phallic object.
The disruption in Los Angeles — as well as others that occurred that evening — appeared to be part of a coordinated effort, borne out of conversations held in some particularly murky, often mysterious corners of internet culture, social media and opportunistic plays in the cryptocurrency markets.</blockquote>
In the normal world, all of this would be treated as sociopathic behavior, going to games and throwing sex toys on the court.
Regardless of how much you dislike the sport, it would be considered, at the very least, bizarre and at the worst, vile.
It could be funny, and a lot of vile behavior is funny, but it is significant; a country with a robust social fabric does not have this kind of behavior, or at least it has less of this kind of behavior. That’s because you wouldn&#8217;t do this in your community, would you?
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/bss-ep-2257-member-exclusive?elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=The+Ben+Shapiro+Show&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
I know I&#8217;m treating seriously what is a frivolous topic, but I think we are now entering an era with the merger of the internet and the real world, a time where there are no more frivolous topics. Every frivolous topic becomes a symptom indicative of true social ills that are dividing us from one another.
You can&#8217;t get together and say, “Yeah, we probably shouldn&#8217;t do that,” or “A Sydney Sweeney jeans ad? Who cares? That’s fine.”
What happened to normalcy? As normalcy disintegrates and as people take one side or the other on ridiculous meme sociopathy, what you end up with is a very, very polarized electorate.
And that&#8217;s particularly true as young people age into the voting population. You&#8217;re seeing it in terms of sexual polarization between men and women; women are swinging wildly to the Left. Men are moving significantly more to the Right. And in terms of political polarization, it&#8217;s more about aesthetic feel than it is even about policy for a lot of these folks.
Is it a problem?
It does say something about the continuing social polarization of our country. We are addicted to our phones, our memes, and to the LOLs, as opposed to the things that actually build a society — like spending time with other human beings in a physical setting with a common goal of making our society and country better.

Las Vegas Aces v Los Angeles Sparks

Sex Toys, Memecoins, And The Collapse Of Common Sense

Ben Shapiro

Cryptocurrency

Culture

Humor

Opinion

U.S. Politics

Fans have thrown sex toys onto the court during WNBA games on three different occasions this past week.
Most recently, Indiana Fever standout Sophie Cunningham was the first to notice a bright green device on the court when her team faced off against the Los Angeles Sparks. The incident occurred after a free throw, right before halftime.
The culprit <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6537792/2025/08/06/sophie-cunningham-sex-toy-wnba-indiana-fever/">fled the arena</a> after throwing the sex toy, according to security personnel.
Clay Travis, the founder of Outkick, commented on the trend and posted video of the latest incident on X. &#8220;A third green d**** has been thrown at a WNBA game!&#8221; he said. &#8220;This time in LA. Atlanta, Chicago and LA now. It appears the d**** may have lightly grazed Sophie Cunningham who tweeted not to hit players with the d*****. This is an all time story. This league!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A third green dildo has been thrown at a WNBA game! This time in LA. Atlanta, Chicago and LA now. It appears the dildo may have lightly grazed Sophie Cunningham who tweeted not to hit players with the dildos. This is an all time story. This league! <a href="https://t.co/zlXUGeOCFf">pic.twitter.com/zlXUGeOCFf</a>
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1952928274419527901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
Sparks coach Lynne Roberts called the trend &#8220;ridiculous,&#8221; &#8220;dumb,&#8221; and &#8220;stupid.&#8221;
“It’s also dangerous,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6537792/2025/08/06/sophie-cunningham-sex-toy-wnba-indiana-fever/">said</a>. &#8220;Player safety is number one, respecting the game, all those things. I think it’s really stupid.”
As noted by Travis, Cunningham seemed to crack a joke about the trend earlier in the week, posting on X, &#8220;stop throwing d****s on the court… you’re going to hurt one of us.&#8221; The post received more than 36 million views.
Following the incident during the Fever/Sparks game, Cunningham noted the post &#8220;did NOT age well.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
this did NOT age well. <a href="https://t.co/K1WGbOWEjJ">https://t.co/K1WGbOWEjJ</a>
— Sophie Cunningham (@sophaller) <a href="https://twitter.com/sophaller/status/1952962130912919737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
On Tuesday, someone threw a similarly green sex toy onto the court during a Golden State Valkyries vs. Atlanta Dream game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Someone threw a green dildo on the court during a WNBA game tonight. <a href="https://t.co/mFSESW6cfE">pic.twitter.com/mFSESW6cfE</a>
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1950383302126567831?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2025</a></blockquote>
The trend has been so widely commented on that people can now actually bet on the color of the next sex toy to be thrown onto the WNBA court.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
You can now bet on what color the next dildo thrown on a WNBA court will be. <a href="https://t.co/8il9I85dJi">pic.twitter.com/8il9I85dJi</a>
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1951709251904430566?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
The WNBA, though, is not finding the trend so comical, for obvious reasons. So far, at least one person has been arrested for pulling the stunt. The WNBA said in a statement that any person throwing objects onto the court will be ejected and banned from league games for one year.
“The safety and well-being of everyone in our arenas is a top priority for our league,” the statement said. “Objects of any kind thrown onto the court or in the seating area can pose a safety risk for players, game officials, and fans. In line with WNBA Arena Security Standards, any fan who intentionally throws an object onto the court will be immediately ejected and face a minimum one-year ban in addition to being subject to arrest and prosecution by local authorities.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wnba-players-ruthlessly-mocked-for-equal-pay-t-shirts?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=WNBA+Players+Ruthlessly+Mocked+For+Equal+Pay+T-Shirts">WNBA Players Ruthlessly Mocked For Equal Pay T-Shirts</a>

Indiana Fever v Los Angeles Sparks

Fans Keep Throwing Sex Toys On Court During WNBA Games

WNBA players participating in the league&#8217;s All-Star game on Saturday night rocked controversial t-shirts that read, &#8220;Pay Us What You Owe Us.&#8221;
Athletes in women&#8217;s professional sports, most notably in sports like basketball and soccer, have been on an &#8220;equal pay&#8221; crusade for years, arguing that they are paid far too little, especially relative to their male counterparts.
According to WNBA players, Saturday&#8217;s shirts were inspired, more specifically, over recent collective bargaining negotiations.
However, as social media users pointed out online, the WNBA is not able to sustain its operations from its own profits alone, and is effectively subsidized by the NBA, which <a href="https://www.sportspro.com/news/wnba-losses-2024-season-nba-team-investment-adam-silver/">reportedly</a> owns 60% of the WNBA.
&#8220;There is no league as tone deaf as the WNBA,&#8221; Daily Wire podcast co-host Jake Crain said. &#8220;&#8216;Pay us what you owe us&#8217; shirts when you have to be subsidized is wild.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
There is no league as tone deaf as the WNBA.
“Pay us what you owe us” shirts when you have to be subsidized is wild. 
<a href="https://t.co/WuA6x6nr93">pic.twitter.com/WuA6x6nr93</a>
— Jake “JBOY” Crain (@JakeCrain_) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeCrain_/status/1946734500098048453?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
Red State writer Bonchie mocked: &#8220;WNBA: &#8216;No one watches our league, it’s losing $50 million a year, and we just got trolled at the ESPYs. What should we do?&#8217; WNBA Players: &#8216;Let’s become even more insufferable.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WNBA: “No one watches our league, it’s losing $50 million a year, and we just got trolled at the ESPYs. What should we do?”
WNBA Players: “Let’s become even more insufferable.” <a href="https://t.co/ytcQlwTvty">https://t.co/ytcQlwTvty</a>
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) <a href="https://twitter.com/bonchieredstate/status/1946903311707152568?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Imagine being an employee at a company that has NEVER turned a profit and showing up to work in these shirts,&#8221; Jason Howerton said. &#8220;Amazing opportunity for the WNBA commissioner to be like: &#8216;OK, deal. You lost us $40 million last year, each of you owe us $231K.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Amazing opportunity for the WNBA commissioner to be like:
&#8220;OK, deal. You lost us $40 million last year, each of you owe us $231K&#8221;
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) <a href="https://twitter.com/jason_howerton/status/1946756289939271933?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
Another X user criticized the WNBA for demanding more money while operating at a loss, and as the &#8220;players beat the s*** out of the only player that fans pay to watch &#8211; Caitlin Clark.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WNBA All-Stars wearing shirts that say &#8220;Pay us what you owe us.&#8221;
LOL. The league operates at a loss and is subsidized by the NBA.
And its players beat the shit out of the only player that fans pay to watch &#8211; Caitlin Clark.<a href="https://t.co/A1B7A8uUsm">pic.twitter.com/A1B7A8uUsm</a>
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) <a href="https://twitter.com/JohnLeFevre/status/1946733515778764940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
Clark, who plays for the Indiana Fever, also wore the &#8220;Pay Us What You Owe Us&#8221; warm-up.
<div id="attachment_949575" style="width: 857px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-949575" class="wp-image-949575 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2226053972-847x576.jpg" alt="Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever wears a shirt saying &quot;Pay us what you owe us&quot; prior to the 2025 AT&amp;T WNBA All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 19, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. " width="847" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2226053972-847x576.jpg 847w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2226053972-300x204.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2226053972-768x522.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-2226053972.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px" />Steph Chambers/Getty Images</div>
However, another WNBA player said during a post-game interview that Clark was not present for the last-minute decision to go with the controversial slogan.
&#8220;It was a very powerful moment. As players, we didn&#8217;t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise,&#8221; Kelsey Plum said. &#8220;The t-shirt was determined this morning. Not to tattletale: zero members of &#8216;team Clark&#8217; were very present for that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
KP: &#8220;It was a very powerful moment. As players, we didn&#8217;t know that that was going to happen. It was a genuine surprise. The t shirt was determined this morning. Not to tattletale: 0 members of Team Clark were very present for that&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/2fXgaAuqMR">https://t.co/2fXgaAuqMR</a> <a href="https://t.co/awIfnqLjxv">pic.twitter.com/awIfnqLjxv</a>
— Oh No He Didn&#8217;t (@ohnohedidnt24) <a href="https://twitter.com/ohnohedidnt24/status/1946770680244044176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
Clark has created tremendous buzz for the women&#8217;s league, and is credited with a boost in attendance and merch sales. In fact, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy gave a different take than most online, arguing that these women actually should make more money, highlighting the league&#8217;s recent boost &#8212; thanks in large part to Clark.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
WNBA rant for people with smaller brains than me. <a href="https://t.co/biDNBX7JWA">pic.twitter.com/biDNBX7JWA</a>
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) <a href="https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1947025716790411309?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/shane-gillis-shocks-espy-crowd-with-unfiltered-jokes-about-epstein-wnba-and-caitlin-clark">Shane Gillis Shocks ESPY Crowd With Unfiltered Jokes About Epstein, WNBA, And Caitlin Clark</a>

AT&T WNBA All-Star Game 2025

WNBA Players Ruthlessly Mocked For Equal Pay T-Shirts

WNBA Players Ruthlessly Mocked For Insane Equal Pay T-Shirts 

Comedian <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/a-list-comedian-shane-gillis-returning-host-snl-second-time-being-fired-sketch-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shane Gillis</a> hosted ESPN&#8217;s &#8220;ESPY Awards&#8221; on Wednesday night and shocked the crowd with a number of jokes about Jeffrey Epstein, the WNBA, its top star Caitlin Clark, and January 6th.
Gillis, who was warmly received by the online crowd, joked about the theories surrounding the death of Epstein, a convicted sex offender.
“Actually there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country and ignore that.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Shane Gillis ripped the Epstein handling during his monologue for the Espy awards on ESPN tonight:
“Actually there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted. Probably deleted itself, right? Probably never existed, actually. Let’s move on as a country… <a href="https://t.co/ym3Brte8fZ">pic.twitter.com/ym3Brte8fZ</a>
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) <a href="https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1945660250688012546?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
During the monologue, Gillis also made a crack about how unpopular the WNBA is by getting the audience to applaud for his podcast co-host&#8217;s wife, introducing her as a WNBA all-star.
&#8220;Four-time WNBA all-star Brittany Hicks is here &#8212; give it up for Brittany everybody,&#8221; Gillis said to big cheers from the audience. &#8220;I&#8217;m joking around, that&#8217;s my friend&#8217;s wife. I knew none of you knew WNBA players. That&#8217;s crazy you clapped for that.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
This might have been Shane Gillis’ best joke of the night.
Introducing his friend’s wife as a 4x WNBA All Star and the crowd totally bought it 😂 <a href="https://t.co/qofeQGJ75X">pic.twitter.com/qofeQGJ75X</a>
— OutKick (@Outkick) <a href="https://twitter.com/Outkick/status/1945696537104764931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
Addressing Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, Gillis joked, &#8220;When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she&#8217;s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting black women.&#8221;
Clark has routinely been the target of cheap shots from other players in the WNBA.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she&#8217;s going to work at a waffle house so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist fighting black women&#8221;
— Shane Gillis 😭😭😭 <a href="https://t.co/X45GWByr6o">pic.twitter.com/X45GWByr6o</a>
— BricksCenter (@BricksCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/BricksCenter/status/1945637600745730362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
Gillis also took on former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, 73, who&#8217;s now dating a 24-year-old woman.
&#8220;A bookie is what Bill Belichick reads to his girlfriend before bedtime,&#8221; the comedian joked. &#8220;They read, ‘Very horny caterpillar,’ ‘The Little Engine That Could But Needed A Pill First,’ and of course, the classic, ‘Good Night Boobs.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Shane Gillis: &#8220;They let me do it. This is Disney. They allowed that&#8230; Yeah, we should&#8217;ve taken that out. I had doubts going into that. That didn&#8217;t work all week.&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ESPYs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ESPYs</a> <a href="https://t.co/Hjttc3J1B4">pic.twitter.com/Hjttc3J1B4</a>
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href="https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1945650193036390444?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
President Donald Trump and the January 6 Capitol breach were also referenced in the Gillis monologue. &#8220;Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Shane Gillis: &#8220;Donald Trump wants to stage a UFC fight on the White House lawn. The last time he staged a fight in D.C., Mike Pence almost died&#8230; Actually, there was supposed to be an Epstein joke here, but I guess it got deleted&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ESPYs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ESPYs</a><a href="https://t.co/lneVij5IDY">pic.twitter.com/lneVij5IDY</a>
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) <a href="https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1945642027842216029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
Gillis was widely praised online for the daring jokes, while X users highlighted some of the shocked reactions from the ESPY crowd:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
everyone in the audience while shane gillis delivers the funniest ESPYs opening of all time <a href="https://t.co/dJFJrEGbOq">pic.twitter.com/dJFJrEGbOq</a>
— greg (@gandalf_thegreg) <a href="https://twitter.com/gandalf_thegreg/status/1945653002330939759?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Shane Gillis was hilarious but you can see how soft society has become that he’s gotta awkwardly feel like the devil for making funny jokes
— NBA Slime (@TerryFranconia) <a href="https://twitter.com/TerryFranconia/status/1945638365837009274?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/even-snl-can-t-deny-that-shane-gillis-is-funny">Even SNL Can’t Deny That Shane Gillis Is Funny</a>

2025 ESPYs – Show

Shane Gillis Shocks ESPY Crowd With Unfiltered Jokes About Epstein, WNBA, And Caitlin Clark

Shane Gillis Shocks ESPY Crowd With Epstein, WNBA, Caitlin Clark Jokes

Jeffrey Epstein

The WNBA&#8217;s Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said over the weekend that she felt she had to step up and protect her teammate, Caitlin Clark, after years of referees allowing cheap shots against Clark, who&#8217;s the league&#8217;s star player.
On Tuesday, Cunningham was ejected from a game and fined after she grabbed Suns guard Jacy Sheldon by the back of the head. Earlier in the game, Sheldon poked Clark in the eye as she was passing the ball &#8212; which clearly did not sit well with Cunningham.
<div id="attachment_938293" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-938293" class="wp-image-938293 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220133971-864x576.jpg" alt="Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) and Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon (4) interact leading to Cunningham and Sheldon being ejected during a WNBA game between the Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever on June 17, 2025, at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN. " width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220133971-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220133971-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220133971-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2220133971.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</div>
&#8220;It was just part of the game,&#8221; Cunningham told the press. &#8220;I think the refs had a lot to do with that. It was a build-up for a couple years now of them just not protecting the star player of the WNBA.&#8221;
&#8220;At the end of the day, I&#8217;m going to protect my teammates,&#8221; she added. &#8220;That&#8217;s what I do.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“It’s been a build up for a couple of years now, of them not protecting the star player of the WNBA.” <a href="https://t.co/FOavJEu4qY">pic.twitter.com/FOavJEu4qY</a>
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenswift/status/1936546299886674250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
During last week&#8217;s game against the Suns, a number of technical fouls were handed down by the referees after Clark got her eye poked and chaos ensued. Stephanie White, coach of the Fever, blamed the referees for letting the game get out of hand. Clark, a frequent target of cheap shots in the league and the recipient of one of those technical fouls, nodded along in agreement.
“I think it was pretty obvious that stuff was brewing, right?” White told the press post-game. “When the officials don&#8217;t get control of the ballgame, when they allow that stuff to happen, and it&#8217;s been happening all season long … you&#8217;ve got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, and when you allow them to play physical, and you allow these things to happen, they&#8217;re going to compete, and they&#8217;re going to have their teammates&#8217; backs. It&#8217;s exactly what you expect out of fierce competition. I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was going to happen. You could tell it was going to happen. So they got to get control of it. They got to be better.”
<div id="attachment_938283" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-938283" class="wp-image-938283 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2212971646-384x576.jpg" alt="Justin Casterline/Getty Images" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2212971646-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2212971646-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/GettyImages-2212971646.jpg 683w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Justin Casterline/Getty Images</div>
As for Cunningham, the guard&#8217;s popularity has only blown up since she got ejected on Tuesday. On X, posts with the player&#8217;s background, highlights of her feisty playing on the court, and her pre-game looks have garnered massive attention.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
After having Caitlin Clark’s back, everyone will know who Sophie Cunningham is now. 🔥 <a href="https://t.co/Z9LtdyOfZc">pic.twitter.com/Z9LtdyOfZc</a>
— 👉M-Û-R-Č-H👈 (@TheEXECUTlONER_) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEXECUTlONER_/status/1935410279652745227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
As <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/sophie-cunningham-calls-out-wnba-not-protecting-caitlin-clark-after-starting-fight-protect-her">highlighted</a> by Fox News, Cunningham comes from a farming family, and says her success derives from those experiences. &#8220;So much of our success goes back to what we learned here,&#8221; Cunningham said. &#8220;We loved coming out to the farm to help. We found out how to work hard and work together. It made us farm strong.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/shorts/46fef763-6804-4d78-b45f-e4f1e6140a73?elementPosition=2&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Shorts&amp;rowType=Shorts+Carousel">Is the WNBA trying to make Caitlin Clark a villain?</a>

Washington Mystics v Indiana Fever

WNBA Player Rips Refs For Allowing Cheap Shots On Caitlin Clark, Says She Had To Act

General

Women's Basketball

President Donald Trump imposes a deadline on Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Democratic Party loses ground with young people and men, and controversy continues to swirl around WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
It’s Friday, May 30, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
Morning Wire is available on video! You can watch today’s episode here: 
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<h2>Trump&#8217;s Red Line</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-927095" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_07.Still004.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_07.Still004.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_00_21_07.Still004-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: In a flurry of activity, the president appeared to give Russian President Vladimir Putin an ultimatum this week, and vowed to push ahead with tariffs despite a roadblock in the courts.
After a recent barrage of Russian airstrikes against Ukrainian cities, Trump has become far more critical of his counterpart in Moscow, accusing Putin of intentionally stalling on peace negotiations. Putin promised last week to deliver a peace proposal to progress formal talks, but so far, no such progress has been made. The Kremlin will only say that its proposal is in its “final stages.”
“We’ll find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not and if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently,” Trump said in an apparent ultimatum. “But it will take about a week and a half to two weeks.” Last weekend, the president <a href="https://x.com/Mylovanov/status/1927808946187759920">said</a> he was strongly considering new retaliatory sanctions on Moscow, but in recent days, he’s walked back that idea, saying he didn’t want to hinder a potential peace agreement.
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Meanwhile, on Wednesday night, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down dozens of President Trump’s tariffs on countries worldwide. Trump invoked the Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement those tariffs, arguing fentanyl trafficking and trade deficits constituted a national emergency, but the court ruled that Trump “exceed[ed] any authority granted to the President” by the act. On Thursday morning, a second federal court in D.C. issued a similar ruling, saying Trump’s tariffs were unlawful.
The first ruling was put on hold by a federal appeals court on Thursday afternoon, which ruled in Trump’s favor — it said all tariffs can remain in place while the court reviews the case. The Trump administration says it won’t be slowed down, referring to the rulings as a hiccup — and it is confident the decision will be overturned on appeal and won’t impact ongoing trade talks.
And, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this week that the administration would work to “aggressively revoke” the visas of Chinese exchange students with ties to the Communist Party, along with those studying in “critical fields.” Chinese students account for 20% of all student visas — the State Department has for years warned that many of these students work with the CCP to smuggle sensitive research data and other intellectual property back to Beijing.
<h2>Democrats Hit Rock Bottom</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-927093" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_20_17.Still002.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_20_17.Still002.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_01_20_17.Still002-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: Democrats are struggling to connect with American men, a demographic that played a crucial role in putting Trump back in the White House. A recent report leaked to The New York Times highlights the party’s $20 million plan to win them back.
Democrats are facing a crisis of perception and policy — the party’s approval rating has plummeted to 27%, the lowest since 1990. Young men in particular have shifted rightward, with many feeling alienated by the Democratic Party’s messaging and drawn to the GOP’s bold, unapologetic style, exemplified by the head of the party himself — Trump. A focus group cited in the Times report found that voters see Democrats as “tortoises” or “sloths” — slow and passive — compared to Republicans, who are viewed as aggressive “apex predators.”
Working-class counties with lower median incomes have seen young men gravitate toward the GOP, which they perceive as the better choice for addressing their economic concerns, like job security and cost of living. Young white men, particularly those without college degrees, feel that the Democrats’ focus on social issues — like gender identity or systemic racism — demonizes them. Many resented the Biden administration’s heavy push for DEI policies. Meanwhile, the GOP’s presence on platforms like YouTube and popular podcasts like Joe Rogan has created a cultural pull that Democrats are struggling to counter.
In response, the Democrats have a $20 million initiative called “American Men: A Strategic Plan&#8221; that will &#8220;study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces&#8221; of male voters. The focus is on digital outreach, emphasizing platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and podcasts.
“[There’s been] a huge shift in the way the media landscape work[s],” pollster Carly Cooperman told The Daily Wire. “I think we saw Democrats wary of going on some of these podcasts that lean culturally conservative, or where Republicans were going on, but that is the shifting landscape, and that is where people are reaching men, and particularly younger men.”
<h2>WNBA Race Bait</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-927091" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_05.Still003.jpeg" alt="" width="640" height="360" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_05.Still003.jpeg 640w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/SEGMENT-HEADERS.00_02_17_05.Still003-300x169.jpeg 300w" sizes=" (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px" /></div>
Topline: Caitlin Clark continues to draw strong ratings for the WNBA, while the league finds itself engulfed in racial controversy.
The WNBA is just two weeks into the 2025 season, but it only took one game for the league to investigate accusations of racism. Caitlin Clark’s team, the Indiana Fever, played the Chicago Sky on May 17, and Clark was called for a flagrant foul following a physical interaction with her rival, Angel Reese. After the foul, Reese began to come after Clark and taunt her. Clark’s team went on to win in a total blowout.
Neither team mentioned any fan remarks in the postgame news conferences afterward, but allegations of “hateful” remarks supposedly directed at Reese, who is black, quickly became a topic on social media. The WNBA announced within a few hours that it would investigate those claims.
“Obviously, there’s no place in this league for that,” Reese said. “I think the WNBA and our team and our organization has done a great job supporting me. … Going through this whole process, if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.”
After about a week of trying to find any evidence of racist fan behavior against Reese, the league announced that it found none. “We have investigated the report of racist fan behavior in the vicinity of the court during the May 17, 2025, Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever game. Based on information gathered to date, including from relevant fans, team and arena staff, as well as audio and video review of the game, we have not substantiated it.” The league went on to ensure everyone knows it is committed to “fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone” and that it would “continue to be vigilant in enforcing our fan code of conduct.”
Many across the country are calling out the league for giving credence to baseless social media claims. Others have blasted Reese for playing the victim despite the lack of any evidence. Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) wrote on <a href="https://x.com/Jim_Banks/status/1927498571806367843">X</a>, &#8220;Angel Reese owes Indiana fans an apology.”

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An investigation by the Women&#8217;s National Basketball Association (WNBA) found no trace of racism toward the Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese during the Sky’s May 17 game against the Indiana Fever.
During the game, the court exploded into momentary chaos after the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark fouled Reese as she attempted a layup. After the game, reports suggested that the tension was further fueled by racist comments from fans.
“We have investigated the report of racist fan behavior in the vicinity of the court during the May 17, 2025 Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever game. Based on information gathered to date, including the relevant fans, team and arena staff, as well as audio and video review of the game, we have not substantiated it. The WNBA is committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone and will continue to be vigilant in enforcing our fan code of conduct,” the WNBA said in a statement on Tuesday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The following has been released by the WNBA. <a href="https://t.co/rFlKQAHmzQ">pic.twitter.com/rFlKQAHmzQ</a>
&mdash; WNBA Communications (@WNBAComms) <a href="https://twitter.com/WNBAComms/status/1927473659964436959?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
During the third quarter of an Opening Day bout between the Sky and Fever, Clark was called for a foul on Reese after Reese drove for a basket. Reese initially fell to the floor, but soon was up and ran toward Clark. Clark continued walking back toward the Fever bench.
At the end of the ensuing scuffle, Clark was called for a flagrant foul while Reese and the Fever’s Aliyah Boston received technicals, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/27/sports/wnba-probe-did-not-find-substantial-evidence-of-fever-fan-racism/">New York Post</a>.
Clark later dismissed controversy over her foul against Reese.
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“It&#8217;s just a good take foul, you know? Either Angel gets a wide open two points or, you know, we send them to the free throw line. Nothing malicious about it. It’s just a good take foul. Every basketball player knows that,” Clark <a href="https://x.com/HaterReport_/status/1923846750084768069">said</a>.
The day after the controversy, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/angel-reese-sky-racial-slurs-f77dd6072d1bcb0fc327ed72bbcf0b73">reported</a> that the WNBA was investigating a report of racist slurs hurled at Reese during the game.
“The WNBA strongly condemns racism, hate, and discrimination in all forms — they have no place in our league or in society,” the basketball league said in a statement at the time. “We are aware of the allegations and are looking into the matter.”
Reese backed the investigation, <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/breaking-news/article/wnba-investigation-reports-of-racist-fan-behavior-directed-at-angel-reese-during-fever-sky-game-not-substantiated-224851242.html">saying</a> several days later that “obviously, there&#8217;s no place in this league for that.”
“I think the WNBA and our team and our organization have done a great job supporting me. I&#8217;ve had communication from everyone, from so many people across this league,” she said.
After the alleged racist comments could not be substantiated, Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment CEO Mel Raines issued a statement reiterating the WNBA’s findings.
&#8220;We appreciate the swift and thorough process undertaken by the WNBA to investigate these allegations, which were not substantiated,” Raines <a href="https://x.com/ItsMeghanLHall/status/1927477305703563404">said</a>.
Chicago Sky President Adam Fox <a href="https://x.com/chicagosky/status/1927490001983426691">thanked</a> the WNBA and Indiana Fever for the “quick action” to investigate the allegations.

Fever-Sky game

HOAX ALERT: WNBA Says It Found No Evidence Of Racism After Clark-Reese Clash

Angel Reese

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