After a jaw-dropping exchange Friday between President Donald Trump and Maine’s stubborn Democrat Gov. Janet Mills, Maine taxpayers might find themselves on the hook for Mills’ vanity project: a looming legal battle to defy Trump’s order to stop men from competing in women’s sports.
The exchange happened in the White House as Trump addressed governors from around the country gathered for the Governors Working Session.
His speech covered numerous topics, including his Feb. 5 Executive Order to protect women and girls competing in sports, by keeping men and boys who masquerade as women from playing on women’s teams.
Trump said the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) complied with the order “immediately,” but not the state of Maine.
“Is Maine here, the governor of Maine? Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked Gov. Janet Mills, striking up a conversation in the middle of his speech.
Mills answered off microphone that Maine will comply with state and federal laws.
“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. Mills Said a few single words off microphone, but Trump talked over her. “You better do it. 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 … doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So you better comply, because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
Mills retorted, “See you in court!”
Trump fired back without missing a beat.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a really easy one,” he said. “And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
It was a shocking and thrilling flex. Trump then turned to the broader audience and repeated what he told Mills.
“Every state has a responsibility to comply with Title IX. They have an obligation, a legal obligation, and we’ll be enforcing aggressively, and we’re going to be protecting our citizens,” he said.
Within an hour of the exchange, Mills had her public communications team whip up an uncompromising statement for the state website.
“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding,” Mills threatened, “my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides. The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
Democrats like Mills love to play identity politics. The second sentence of her biography on the state website touts her amazing accomplishment of being female.
“Governor Mills is the first woman governor of Maine,” it reads, later adding that Mills is “the first woman to be elected as a [district attorney] in New England,” and “In 2008, she was elected by her colleagues to serve as Attorney General of Maine, the first and only woman to hold the job.”
But what good is her girliness if she won’t protect other women and girls? Her soon-to-be expensive and likely losing battle against Trump’s order to allow women a safe space should mean the end of identity politics.
If Mills breaks the “Girl Code” by failing to come to the aid of other women, her accomplishments in the name of womanhood are meaningless.
Under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, educational institutions receiving federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.
Trump’s order, citing previous federal court decisions, notes that, “ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.” The order also declares it U.S. policy “to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” in opposition to “the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls. “
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” the order reads.
By late Friday afternoon, Trump’s education department had already launched investigations into the Maine Department of Education and a school district in the state “for allegedly ignoring President Donald Trump’s executive order,” according to Fox News.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
