President Trump and Maine’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills briefly quarreled Friday at a Nationwide Governors Affiliation session on the White Home after Trump informed a gathering of Republican governors he would withhold federal funding from the state over its refusal to adjust to an govt order on transgender athletes.
In remarks Friday afternoon, Trump repeated the false declare that two feminine Olympic boxers had been transgender and touted a latest order meant to ban trans athletes from competing in women’ and girls’s sports activities, together with on the 2028 Summer season Olympics in Los Angeles.
He requested Mills, who attended Friday’s occasion, whether or not she would direct her state to observe the order. Maine’s governing physique for highschool sports activities, the Maine Principal’s Affiliation, beforehand mentioned it might not bar transgender athletes from competing on groups that match their gender identification, citing a state anti-discrimination legislation stopping the group from doing so.
“I’m complying with state and federal law,” Mills responded.
“We’re the federal legislation. You higher do it since you’re not going to get federal funding,” Trump mentioned, echoing a menace he made Thursday night at a gathering for the Republican Governor’s Affiliation. Whereas govt orders direct the federal government to implement legal guidelines, they can’t override federal legal guidelines or statutes independently.
“See you in court docket,” Mills mentioned.
“Get pleasure from your life after governor,” Trump responded, “because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Mills, who has served as governor of Maine since 2019, is term-limited and can’t search reelection for a 3rd consecutive time period in 2026.
Earlier Friday, Mills mentioned the state “will not be intimidated by the President’s threats” to withhold federal funds.
“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children from the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she mentioned in a press release.
Maine Legal professional Basic Aaron Frey (D) known as Trump’s warning “disturbing.”
“Any attempt by the President to cut federal funding in Maine unless transgender athletes are restricted from playing sports would be illegal and in direct violation of court orders,” Frey mentioned in a press release Friday morning. “Fortunately, though, the rule of law still applies in this county, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the President to bully and threaten us.”
