President Donald Trump arrives to speak at the Republican Governors Association meeting Thursday at the National Building Museum in Washington. Pool via AP
Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump got into a heated exchange at the White House on Friday over his threats to cut federal funding to Maine because transgender athletes are allowed to compete in girls’ sports.
Trump had made the threat on Thursday when speaking to Republican governors, prompting immediate and forceful pushback from Mills and other officials on Friday.
Friday’s confrontation, which was captured on video and posted to social media, came as Trump was addressing governors who had gathered in Washington, D.C. for the National Governors Associations’ winter meeting.
Trump noted that the NCAA had complied with his executive order prohibiting men from participating in women’s sports and then asked if the governor of Maine was in attendance.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked Mills.
“I’m complying with state and federal law,” Mills shot back.
“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. “You’d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
“See you in court,” Mills replied.
“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.”
Heated exchange between President Trump and Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) over executive order banning transgender women in sports
President Trump: “Are you not going to comply with that?”@GovJanetMills: “I’m complying with state and federal laws.”
Trump: “We are the federal law.… pic.twitter.com/O7my5uN45W
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 21, 2025
The exchange came a day after Trump said at a gathering Washington Thursday that he 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’re still saying they want men to play in women’s sports, and I cannot believe they’re doing that,” he said. “So we’re not going to give them any money, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”
Both Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey issued written statements Friday morning pledging to fight any attempt to cut off the state’s funding.
“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. “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
A professor at the University of Maine School of Law believes that it it would be unconstitutional for Trump to withhold all federal funding from the state over this one issue.
Professor Dmitry Bam, who teaches constitutional law among other topics, said Congress has the power to allocate funding and set conditions that states must meet to receive federal grants. Those conditions must be unambiguous, clearly established by Congress and not designed to coerce states to follow a particular directive. And those conditions can’t be changed after a funding agreement is reached, he said.
“The way the case law is written is that the conditions need to be enacted and clearly indicated by Congress, so the president can’t come in and make up and create his own conditions,” Bamm said.
The president’s threat came days after a Maine lawmaker made a widely circulated social media post that included photos of a high school athlete and criticized the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in school sports.
Trump signed an executive order earlier this month saying the federal government would deny federal funding for schools that allow transgender athletes assigned male at birth to compete on women’s teams.
Officials in Maine, as well as in some other states, have not changed the policy, saying the order does not override federal and state laws.
According to an analysis in September by Pew Charitable Trusts, Maine is more reliant on federal funding than other states. In fiscal 2022, federal grants accounted for 36.4%, or $1.11 trillion, of state revenues, while in Maine, federal grants accounted for 40.7%, or $5.41 billion, of the state’s revenue.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said Friday that he was disturbed to see Trump “use children as pawns in advancing his political agenda.”
“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 federal court orders,” Frey said in a written statement. “Fortunately, though, the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the President to bully and threaten us.”
Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is the Senate’s top appropriator and has been pushing back on Trump’s efforts to withhold federal funding approved by Congress, said she would “advocate vigorously for our fair share of federal funding for Maine schools.”
Collins said she agrees that transgender athletes should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports, saying that it undermines the purpose of the Title IX program, which expanded opportunities for women playing high school and college level sports. She urged state officials to remember the original purpose of the Title IX program.
“One of the keys to the success of Title IX has been fair and safe athletic competition,” Collins said in a written statement. “Allowing biological males who identify as transgender to compete in women’s sports has threatened to undermine the core purposes behind Title IX. This is not a political issue; this is a matter of biology.”
But Collins said it was an issue for state leaders to decide.
“State officials will have to make their own decisions about how they want to conduct athletic competitions in Maine. But we must remember that Title IX is a law, not a suggestion. And the law requires that the integrity of women’s sports must be preserved in a way that provides safe, fair, and equal opportunities to compete.”
Collins also urged everyone to “treat people who are transgender with respect and dignity.”
“This is especially important when dealing with young people, who face heightened pressure and challenges,” Collins said.
Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has spoken out about why he believes Trump is overstepping his authority by withholding federal funding and eliminating federal programs that have been approved by Congress. In a floor speech on Thursday, King called such efforts generally as “straight-up unconstitutional, and it’s illegal.”
When asked whether King agrees with Trump’s executive order on transgender athletes, a spokesman said that King believes “it is not a federal matter.”
Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, said in a written statement that he doesn’t support Maine’s current policy, but the Trump administration is wrong to withhold federal funding over a policy dispute. Golden noted his opposition to a bill that would have established a national policy, saying it is a states issue.
“Every child has a right to a quality education and it’s wrong to punish every Maine school over a policy disagreement that applies to a small fraction of students,” Golden said. “But I also believe the state got this policy wrong; In public schools in Maine, biological boys shouldn’t compete in sports against biological girls. While we in Congress wrestle over the role of the federal government versus the states in education, state political and education leaders have the authority to resolve this issue, and they should.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, blasted Trump, saying that courts have repeatedly found that the federal government cannot “withhold funding arbitrarily or use it as leverage to undermine established civil rights protections.” She noted that Maine’s policies currently comply with the Maine Human Rights Act, and she would do everything she can to fight back.
“Federal funding is not a political bargaining chip,” Pingree said in a written statement. “President Trump’s threat to cut off funding to Maine is not only an egregious abuse of power—it’s an unconstitutional act of coercion designed to force states into compliance with his extreme and discriminatory agenda.”
She added, “If the President attempts to follow through with this threat, we will fight this in Congress, in the courts, and alongside every Mainer who believes in equality under the law.”
Meanwhile, some Republicans in Maine, including Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, welcomed Trump’s remarks.
Libby’s Facebook post early this week in which she identified the winner of a girls’ track championship as transgender was widely circulated. And in an interview with conservative commentator Todd Starnes before Trump’s speech, Libby said that pulling federal funding for Maine seems to be the only thing that would ensure that only biological females are competing in girls’ sports.
“I don’t think the Democratic majority is going to listen to reason until money talks, and that includes the federal funding getting yanked for Maine schools,” Libby said.
On Friday, Libby shared a video of Trump’s comments on Facebook.
“President Trump pledges to step in to protect girls’ sports in Maine and clean up the failure by both the Maine Principals’ Association and the Maine Democrat Majority!” her post said.
Maine House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, said in a Facebook post Friday morning that, “We still have a battle ahead as the Democrats are going to dig in their heels and attempt to defy the President, but I believe victory will be ours.”
“This chapter is closing on the dark time in history where women’s rights and edification were lost to an agenda seeking to confuse and harm our kids,” Smith wrote.
Trump’s threat follows days of escalating online clashes in Maine.
On Monday, Libby posted on her official Facebook page about a high school athlete who won a girls’ track championship last weekend and who Libby said competed as a boy last year. She included photos and referred to the student by first name but did not use a last name. Libby was asked by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, to remove the post, but has said she has no intention to do so.
Libby also criticized state officials’ decision to continue allowing transgender athletes to compete in high school sports despite Trump’s executive order in a series of social media posts and interviews this week. She said the policies of the Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees high school sports, are putting female athletes at risk of harm.
Maine expanded athletic opportunities for transgender students last spring when the Maine Principals’ Association updated its policies to align with the Maine Human Rights Act. The new policy allows transgender student athletes to compete either on the team that aligns with their sex assigned at birth or the one aligned with their gender identity, but not both. How to handle those requests is left up to schools.
While Golden disagrees with Maine’s current policy, his spokesperson said he doesn’t support personal attacks on transgender athletes.
“Rep. Golden doesn’t think elected officials should be scapegoating, making this personal, or putting this conversation on the shoulders of any individual child,’ spokesperson Mario Moretto said. “That’s just common decency.”
Jason Savage, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, also criticized Libby’s tactics, though not by name, on WGAN Newsradio on Thursday.
“Some of the kids that are being put in the middle of these controversies are dealing with a lot,” Savage said. “I think if you’re a young person who is struggling with identity, I don’t think we need to be putting you at the center of anything and making you a focal point for an entire state or nation.”
Staff Writer Gillian Graham contributed to this story.
This story will be updated.
