Following U.S. President Donald Trump's address to Congress on Mar. 4, 2025, a rumor circulated online that he misspoke when he said the government used taxpayer money to fund research on "making mice transgender" — a claim we also investigated.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow blasted President Donald Trump and Elon Musk as “numbskulls” while fact-checking a claim the federal government was using tax dollars to make mice transgender. Trump claimed during his Tuesday speech before both houses of Congress that government waste had gotten so out of control that money had been spent to assist mice

In a lengthy address to Congress on Tuesday, President Donald Trump alleged the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered an $8 million governmental effort to make “mice transgender,” according to Rolling Stone.