(The Hill) -- President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday banning transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, the latest in a string of executive actions from the new administration to take aim at LGBTQ rights. 

The order, which Trump is expected to sign Wednesday afternoon, coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which is recognized annually in February to celebrate the accomplishments of female athletes. The Women’s Sports Foundation, which co-founded National Girls and Women in Sports Day in 1987, has opposed categorical bans on transgender athletes, claiming such policies “limit opportunities and harm the development of both cisgender and transgender girls and women.” 

The organization did not immediately return a request for comment on Trump’s forthcoming order. 

On the campaign trail, Trump promised repeatedly to ban transgender athletes from sports if he were reelected. During a town hall event in Georgia in October, Trump signaled he would do so through an executive order. 

“The president bans it,” Trump said in response to a question about how he would handle “the transgender issue” in women’s sports. “You just don’t let it happen. Not a big deal.” 

Most Americans believe transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their gender identity, a 2023 Gallup poll found. According to AP VoteCast, a survey of 120,000 voters nationwide, more than half of voters in the 2024 elections — including a majority of Trump voters — said support for trans rights in government and society has gone too far. 

OPM employees file suit to block use of new email system

The exact number of transgender athletes participating in school sports in the U.S. is unknown. While more than half of states have adopted policies to stop them from competing, lawmakers have often struggled to cite specific examples of trans athletes in their states. 

In rejecting Utah’s 2022 transgender athlete ban, Republican Gov. Spencer Cox wrote in a veto message that the state’s high school activities association had identified only four trans student-athletes that year, none of them the subject of complaints from students, families or administrators. 

“Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports. That’s what all of this is about,” Cox wrote at the time. “Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day."

"Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few," he added.

In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, told a Senate panel that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes he is aware of who currently compete in college sports, accounting for less than .002 percent of NCAA athletes nationwide. 

Baker, who has faced mounting pressure from Republicans and conservative organizations to ban transgender athletes from college sports, said he would not adopt such a policy because federal courts have consistently sided with participation, but he would be open to with Congress to create a “federal standard” for eligibility. 

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which oversees collegiate sports at 241 mostly small colleges across the country, approved a policy barring most transgender women from competition in April. 

House Republicans, with support from two Democrats, passed legislation in January to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports. 

Wednesday’s executive order is the latest move from Trump and his administration to roll back transgender rights.  

The president, during his first few days back in office, signed orders declaring the government recognizes only two sexes, barring transgender people from serving openly in the military, threatening funding for schools that teach “radical gender ideology” and curbing federal support for gender-affirming care for transgender young people. 

Brett Samuels contributed.

WARRENTON, N.C. (WNCN) — Remains of a North Carolina woman missing since November 2023 were found by dive teams this week, authorities said Saturday night.

Dana Leigh Mustian, 33, never showed up at her daughter’s 6th birthday party during the first weekend of December 2023, family and officials said. Mustian was last seen at her in Warrenton, about 10 miles south of the North Carolina-Virginia border, on Nov. 30, 2023.

She had been dropped off at home by her father, according to her family. Mustian told him she loved him and would see him the next day. However, that wasn’t the case.

PREVIOUS: Search continues two months after North Carolina mom misses daughter’s birthday party

A missing persons report was filed on Dec. 4, 2023, followed by several searches on land and water stretching into 2024.

The latest search on Thursday brought the family sad news, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said.

Family members of missing Warren County woman hold out hope

The Youngsville Rescue Dive Team found "possible human remains," according to a Warren County Sheriff’s Office news release Saturday night.

The remains were later identified as Mustain's, deputies said. No additional information was released.

"Her disappearance and death is continuing to be investigated," a statement Saturday night said.

POTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The evening news has been populated with scenes of suspected illegal immigrants being rounded up as the new Secretary of Homeland Security looks on in body armor. Failures at the border have been the centerpiece of the Trump agenda.

Democratic Third District Rep. Bobby Scott agrees that reforms are needed, but not if they're made for television.

"You don't need more expensive photo ops to make that point," Scott said. "Just enforce the law."

This week, for the first time, military aircraft have been used to transport suspected illegal immigrants, even in cases where the receiving countries initially refused to allow the planes to land. Scott has an estimate on the cost as the president has launched the Department of Government Efficiency.

"Well, we're seeing the estimates of the costs of the photo ops and putting the immigrants on military rather than commercial [planes]," Scott said. "The cost is five or 10 times more expensive for that photo op."

Across the aisle, First District Republican Rep. Rob Wittman applauds President Trump's program.

"Border security is a matter of national security, and the actions taken by President Trump reflect the leadership we need to address this crisis head-on, " said Wittman in a statement

Late Friday, we learned the U.S. Coast Guard has conducted what it calls alien expulsion flights between California and Texas.

Because of a lack of access to menstruation products, girls across Africa and Asia often stay home from school when they have their periods.