Ex-teammate of trans swimmer Lia Thomas mocks UPenn plea after Donald Trump stops $175m in funding

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One of the former teammates of transgender Penn swimmer Lia Thomas found some humor in her alma mater asking for donations in the wake of federal funding cuts by President Donald Trump.

Paula Scanlan, who swam on the Penn team at the same time as Thomas, has gone on to be one of the biggest advocates for keeping trans women out of women's sports.

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that $175million federal funding to the Ivy League school would be paused.

After that was announced, Scanlan says she received a call from the school asking for alumni donations.

'They always call me, and they call all alums… obviously, I'm not interested in donating any money,' Scanlan told Fox News Digital. 

She then added that she wouldn't consider donating to the school until Penn apologized to her about 'being forced to undress' in front of Thomas in the locker rooms.

Former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan is mocking her former school for a donation request

Scanlan was on the swim team at the same time as transgender swimmer Lia Thomas

Scanlan says she gets many requests for donations from the school but the timing was funny

'But, ironically, yesterday evening was one of the times they chose to call me to ask for a donation… they're always calling me asking, always asking for money and [Wednesday] was one of the times they chose to do that, which I thought was really funny considering the announcement,' she added.

Scanlan said she last received a request for a donation from UPenn back in February via e-mail. 

'This is not a new thing, but I'm sure they're pressing for cash and that's definitely something they're trying to do.'

Scanlan added that if the school wanted any donations from her, in addition to an apology, they would need to cut back on programs she believes are 'useless'. 

'University of Pennsylvania has 150 plus unique things that you can major in, I think that we are looking at mass departments that are completely useless degrees,' she said.

'Students are taking out hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans to major in useless things like gender studies and I think that we need to see them get rid of that.

'This is not unique to the University of Pennsylvania and that's something I would want to see before I'd ever consider donating, not just to my university, but any university across this country.'

Scanlan has been a very outspoken critic of the school's decision to include Thomas on their women's swim team in the 2021-22 season after she began medically transitioning.

That request came after US President Donald Trump announced he was revoking $175million in federal funding from the school due to their choice to allow Thomas to compete years ago

Scanlan says she doesn't intend to donate to the school unless they meet her demands

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Now, it seems that Scanlan is celebrating some modicum of redemption after the institution she attended is going through financial difficulties.

'I think that it's obviously a good thing, it's a good message to send,' Scanlan said. 

'But it's only going to make a small difference and I think what they're probably going to do with the funding cut is probably fire a couple administrators, it's not going to make overhead change to these departments, to the types of professors they're hiring, to the ideology they're teaching.

'I hope that we continue to see people crack down on these kind of campuses and I hope to see reform, but again, this is only a small first step.'

Scanlan was not the only one celebrating as many more of her fellow UPenn teammates reacted positively to the news that their alma mater was going through financial hardship.

Trump announced the cuts on Wednesday. An official White House post on X accused the Ivy League school of 'forcing women to compete with men in sports', while adding the president's tagline: 'Promises made, promises kept.' 

Trump's decision came exactly three years since Thomas controversially won a national swimming title for UPenn in the women's 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships.