President Donald Trump sparred with Maine’s Democratic governor during a meeting of governors at the White House on Friday, with Gov. Janet Mills telling the Republican president, “We’ll see you in court,” over his push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.
Trump told the governor he looked forward to it and predicted the end of her political career for opposing his order. Later Friday, the U.S. Department of Education said it was initiating an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the inclusion of transgender athletes.
The confrontation during the meeting came after Mills and Trump had traded barbs over the last 24 hours regarding his push to bar transgender athletes from playing in girls’ and women’s sports. The confrontation in the State Dining Room was an unusual breach of the typically courteous interactions that lawmakers, even of opposing parties, have historically shared at the White House.
The back-and-forth came in the middle of the president’s remarks welcoming the nation’s governors to the White House. As he was speaking about an executive order he signed earlier this month on transgender athletes, he sought out Mills in the room after singling her out a day earlier in remarks to the Republican Governors Association.
“Is Maine here, the governor of Maine?” he asked.
“I’m here,” she replied.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” he asked.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills replied.
Trump responded, “We are the federal law.” He again threatened the state’s federal funding and said Maine may be a Democratic state but its residents largely agree with him on this issue.
“We’re going to follow the law,” she said.
“You’d better comply,” Trump warned. “Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.”
“We’ll see you in court,” the governor replied.
“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” Trump said. “And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Trump made a similar funding threat Thursday night as he spoke to a group of Republican governors. He said that he “heard men are still playing in Maine” and that he would pull funding because of it.
“So we’re not going to give them any federal funding. None whatsoever, until they clean that up,” Trump said.
The Maine Principals’ Association, which governs high school sports in the state, said earlier this month that it would continue to allow transgender female athletes to compete. The association’s executive director, Mike Burnham, said it would follow the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights said in a letter sent later Friday to the commissioner of the state Department of Education that it was launching an investigation amid “allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics,” which it called a violation of federal antidiscrimination law.
The U.S. Department of Education’s statement said state laws do not override federal antidiscrimination laws. If the state wants to continue to receive federal funds from the education department, it must follow Title IX, said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights with the education department, in a statement.
Mills said she would work with the attorney general to defend the state in court, but she predicted that Maine would not be the last state Trump tried to target.
“I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined,” she said in a statement. She added: “But do not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”
Earlier Friday, Mills and Maine’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Frey, pushed back against Trump’s comments the night before.
Mills said the state “will not be intimidated” by Trump’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,” Mills said in a statement before the confrontation with Trump.
Frey said he would “defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us.”
The order Trump signed earlier this month gives federal agencies wide latitude to make sure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth.
The federal government could penalize organizations such as schools or athletic associations that do not comply, possibly by pulling funding such as grants to educational programs.
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Price reported from New York. Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.
