President Donald Trump mixed it up with Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) at the White House Friday over his ban on men competing in women’s sports. When the governor told him she would not comply with his executive order, Trump warned her that she needed to follow it or “you’re not going to get any federal funding.”
Trump signed his EO Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports on February 5 to “protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports.” The order requires that athletes play on teams that align with the immutable biological classification of their sex at birth.
Governors of both parties were at the White House Friday morning to hear the president deliver remarks as part of an annual meeting of state leaders.
When Trump turned to his executive order, he said that “the NCAA has complied immediately,” although it has since come out that the NCAA’s new policy has loopholes that allow biological men to compete in women’s sports.
Maine is one of several blue states that have vowed to defy the Trump’s executive order.
Turning to the Maine governor, he said “Are you not going to comply with that?”
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills responded, before Trump fired back: “Well, we are the federal law” and “you better do it, you better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
The president reminded the Maine governor that he “did very well” in her state in the 2024 election and even though the residents there are “somewhat liberal,” they don’t “want men playing in women’s sports, so you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
“We’ll see you in court,” Mills responded.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterwards,” Trump shot back.
Mills said in a statement later Friday that “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
“If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she added.
Trump foreshadowed his tough stand against Maine on Thursday when he told a gathering of Republican governors in Washington, D.C. that “I heard men are still playing in Maine.”
“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money, they are still saying ‘we want men to play in women’s sports’ and I cannot believe that they’re doing that… So we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up,” he added.
Trump’s executive order, which was signed on Feb. 5, instructed all federal agencies to review grants, programs and policies that fail to comply with the administration’s efforts to end “male competitive participation in women’s sports… as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
The order also instructed strict Title IX enforcement against any educational institutions or athletic associations that do not comply and demands federal assistance be taken away in such cases.
Shortly after the order was signed, multiple states, including Maine, California, Minnesota and others run primarily by Democrats, indicated that they would not comply with Trump.
The executive director of the primary governing body for high school sports in the state of Maine said athletic teams will continue to determine eligibility based on a student’s stated gender identity, despite the president’s executive order seeking to keep “men out of women’s sports.”
Trump will likely also have to deal with the recalcitrant NCAA because its new policy, designed purportedly to conform with Trump’s EO is reportedly “riddled with loopholes” that allow males to compete against women.