• On January 20, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order stated that “it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” requiring federal agencies to comply with this definition and barring trans people from gender-specific facilities that align with their lived gender. 

• On January 27, Trump signed an executive order titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.” Following his Day 1 repeal of a Biden-era executive order that had allowed trans people to enlist in the military, Trump’s order stated that those diagnosed with gender dysphoria are unfit for service and directed the Department of Defense to separate existing trans service members. 

• On January 28, Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.” The order stated that the federal government will “not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgery — for trans people under the age of 19. 

• On February 5, Trump signed an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” threatening to rescind federal funds from any school that allows trans women to compete in women's sports. 

• In addition to these executive orders that primarily targeted trans Americans, the president also signed several orders in his first month in office that impacted trans people through efforts to limit diversity, equity, and inclusion and undercut inclusive curricula, among others. Because they did not primarily target trans people, however, these orders were not considered for the purpose of this study. 

While the number of anti-trans bills introduced in state legislatures has seen a dramatic increase in the last four years, Trump’s new executive orders mark a breakthrough in implementing extreme anti-trans policies at the federal level and prompt questions over how national media might respond in the rapidly changing landscape of the new administration.  

In the first 31 days of Trump's second term, cable news networks spent 8 hours and 50 minutes covering his anti-trans executive orders, comprising 156 segments and 187 teasers or mentions. 

Fox News spent nearly as much time covering the issue as the other two cable news networks combined, with 4 hours and 8 minutes of total coverage. MSNBC featured 2 hours and 33 minutes of coverage by comparison, and CNN aired 2 hours and 9 minutes of coverage. 

Fox News also dominated the other networks in the number of segments about the executive orders, running 85 segments on the topic. CNN featured 39 such segments, and MSNBC aired 32. 

In addition to featuring the majority of discussion of Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, Fox News personalities and guests also mentioned the issue more frequently in segments that were about a different topic, suggesting that Fox viewers were reminded of the orders more often than those of other networks. Fox News referenced the orders in 83 teasers and mentions while CNN and MSNBC aired 53 and 51 teasers and mentions, respectively. 

Of the 8 hours and 50 minutes spent covering Trump’s anti-trans executive orders in the first month of the new term, 5 hours and 11 minutes appeared on news shows while 3 hours and 39 minutes aired on opinion programs. 

All three cable networks spent about the same amount of time covering the issue on their respective news shows: MSNBC news shows spent 1 hour and 51 minutes covering Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, CNN news programs spent 1 hour and 42 minutes, and Fox news-side shows spent 1 hour and 37 minutes.

However, Fox News far outstripped all other cable news coverage in time dedicated to the topic on its opinion shows. 

Fox opinion shows featured 2 hours and 30 minutes of coverage focused on Trump’s anti-trans orders, making up over 28% of coverage of the executive orders across all networks and 60% of Fox’s total coverage.

By contrast, MSNBC opinion shows dedicated 42 minutes of coverage to Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, and CNN opinion shows aired 27 minutes of coverage. 

Segments about Trump’s February 5 executive order targeting trans inclusion in women's sports totaled 3 hours and 37 minutes, accounting for 51% of all cable news segments about Trump’s anti-trans executive orders. Fox News alone covered the order for 2 hours and 31 minutes, meaning that over one-third of all segment coverage about Trump’s anti-trans executive orders resulted from Fox’s focus on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

Segments about the anti-trans executive order “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” totaled 1 hour and 37 minutes of coverage combined across all networks, segments about the executive order “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” also totaled 1 hour and 37 minutes of coverage, and segments about the executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” totaled 39 minutes. 

The majority of segments about the executive orders on CNN included discussion of the order barring trans people from military service, totaling 58 minutes of coverage. Most segments about the orders on MSNBC included discussion of the order redefining federal recognition of sex, totaling 43 minutes of coverage. 

Of the 86 guest segments on cable news that discussed Trump’s anti-trans executive orders, only 12 segments featured a trans or gender-nonconforming guest (14%). CNN aired 7 such guest segments, MSNBC ran 4 (including 2 segments featuring Rep. Sarah McBride (D-DE), the first openly trans member of Congress), and Fox News featured 1 such guest segment with contributor Caitlyn Jenner. 

Half of the segments that included a trans or gender-nonconforming guest were about the executive order targeting trans service members — a total of 6 segments, 5 of which were featured on CNN. CNN aired 9 guest segments about the executive order barring trans people from enlisting in the military, meaning that over half of all guest segments dedicated to the topic on the network featured a trans guest — including several former or current transgender service members.

Three segments featuring a trans or gender-nonconforming guest were about Trump’s order redefining how the federal government recognizes sex and another 3 were about the order targeting trans inclusion in women's sports. None of the 22 segments about the order restricting gender-affirming care included a trans or gender-nonconforming guest, regardless of network.

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original programming on CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC for any of the terms “trans,” “transgender,” “pronoun,” “gender,” “nonbinary,” “non-binary,” “nonconforming,” “non-conforming,” “biological,” or “sex” within close proximity to any of the terms “Trump,” “president,” “order,” “executive,” “action,” or “EO” from January 20, 2025, when President Donald Trump signed the first anti-trans executive order of his second term, through February 19, 2025.

We timed segments, which we defined as instances when any of Trump's anti-trans executive orders signed in the first month of his second term — “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness,” “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” or “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” — were the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of any of the orders. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in a multitopic segment discussed any of the orders with one another.

We also timed mentions, which we defined as instances when a speaker in a segment on another topic mentioned any of the orders without another speaker in the segment engaging with the comment, and teasers, which we defined as instances when the anchor or host promoted a segment about any of the orders scheduled to air later in the broadcast. 

We rounded all times to the nearest minute.

We then reviewed the identified segments for whether they included any guests who publicly self-identify as trans or gender-nonconforming.