President Donald Trump on Friday reiterated his threat to yank Maine's federal funding if the state doesn't comply with his unilateral ban on transgender athletes participating in women's sports during a tense exchange with Gov. Janet Mills at a White House event.
The exchange took place during Trump's speech at a National Governors Association gathering. He called out Mills for not complying with his executive order which is in conflict with a Maine law that allows transgender athletes to compete in women's sports. Local Republicans, buoyed by the president's edict, are trying to change that law and have recently ramped up their pressure campaign. Those efforts in included state Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, sharing the photo of a high school athlete she identified as transgender on social media.
The viral post has ricocheted across the conservative media ecosystem and appears to have prompted Trump to use two public events in the past 24 hours to threaten Maine's allocation of federal education funding.
Trump's remarks during an NGA speech was the second such event.
After noting that the NCAA was complying with his executive order, he then asked if Maine's governor was in the room. She was.
“Are you not going to comply with it?” he asked her.
Mills, seated at a table, replied that she'll comply with state and federal law.
“I — 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 as the room full of US governors watched in stunned silence.
Trump said he looked forward to the pending legal fight and then told Mills to enjoy her life as governor "because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Shortly after the exchange the U.S. Dept. of Education announced it was investigating the state and the school district where the student-athlete pictured in Libby's photo attends public school for potential civil rights violations.
Mills, in a statement, described the probe as politically directed and its result likely predetermined. She said was following state law and said it was coercion for Trump to withhold funds lawfully appropriated by Congress in order to comply with his political agenda.
“No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold,” Mills said.
She also suggested Trump’s actions were a warning to other states.
“Maine may one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his Administration, but we won’t be the last,” she said. “Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed. But you must ask yourself: who and what will he target next, and what will he do? Will it be you? Will it be because of your race or your religion? Will it be because you look different or think differently? Where does it end? In America, the President is neither a King nor a dictator, as much as this one tries to act like it – and it is the rule of law that prevents him from being so.”
The state received $250 million in federal funding during the most recent fiscal year. Overall, the state received $4.8 billion in federal dollars during the last fiscal year, according to state budget data. Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey on Friday said that his office will fight any attempt by the Trump administration to claw back the state's share of education funding.
"It is disturbing that President Trump would use children as pawns in advancing his political agenda," Frey said in a statement. "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. 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.”
Meanwhile, Libby, the Republican lawmaker who shared a photo of a teenage high school athlete, applauded the president's remarks about the issue during Republican Governors Association event on Thursday.
"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!" she wrote.
Libby's post identifying the student-athlete has generated a separate backlash. In that post, the faces of two other high school athletes were blurred to protect their identities, but not the athlete she identified as transgender, a move that led social media users to accuse the lawmaker of making the student a target of abuse.
Her post was also criticized by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, who said it used a kid to score political points.
“All kids deserve better than to be used as political fodder for internet bullies,” Fecteau said in a social media post. “Kids should be able to focus on being kids. They shouldn’t have to worry about a politician sharing images of them online without their consent.”
Bre Danvers-Kidman is co-executive director of Maine Transgender Network.
"I think the conversation we're having today is less about female transgender athletes and more about adults bullying children," they said.
Danvers-Kidman said they're heartened that Mills and Frey are taking a firm position.
"When there's money involved, I think there's always the question of, are people going to stand up for the right thing? Or are they going to decide it's not worth it because it's too much money. Because we're not talking about a small amount of money here," they said.
