By NewsMata
Maine Governor Janet Mills, a Democrat, told President Donald Trump on Friday that she would see him in court after he criticized her for defying his executive order regarding transgender athletes competing in girls and women’s sports.
Mills was responding to Trump’s threat to withhold federal funding from the Pine Tree State as he addressed a room full of governors at the White House.
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) later said it had opened an investigation into Maine’s DOE over allegations it was continuing “to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law.”
Why It Matters
The public clash between Mills and the president comes as the Trump administration has made it clear that it wants all state and local leaders to comply with executive orders signed by the president in his first month in office. The administration is already suing Illinois, the city of Chicago, and New York state over sanctuary laws which it sees as defying the president’s wishes and federal law.
What To Know
Trump’s executive order—one of several signed within his first few days back in the Oval Office—sought to ban transgender women from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, with the argument that those athletes were biological men.
The order uses Title IX to back its reasoning—a civil rights law enacted in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in schools or education programs receiving federal funding.
The dispute was directly linked to a threat on Thursday where the president told Republican governors he could withhold education funding for Maine if it didn’t comply.
What Did Janet Mills Say to Donald Trump?
Trump asked Mills, who previously said Maine would not bar transgender groups from competing in categories matching their gender identity, whether she would comply with the order.
She responded that she was complying with state and federal law. Maine has an anti-discrimination law which prevents organizations enacting a ban like the one Trump ordered.
“We are the federal law,” Trump said. “Well, you better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it is somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports.”
Mills simply responded: “See you in court.”
Trump then said: “Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one.”
Who Is Janet Mills?
Mills has been governor of Maine since 2019 and is serving her second term. She was the first woman in the state elected to the office.
She previously served two terms as the state’s first woman attorney general, from 2009-2011 and then again from 2013-2019.
At the White House on Friday, Trump told Mills he hoped she would enjoy her life after being governor because he did not think she would be re-elected. The Democrat cannot seek another term, anyway, as the post is term-limited, and she will leave office in 2026.
(Credit Newsweek)
