President Donald Trump is demanding a "full throated apology" from Maine Gov. Janet Mills over their brief-but-tense exchange last month about transgender athletes.
Trump made the demand Saturday in a post on Truth Social.
"While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases," Trump wrote on the social media platform.
"Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled," Trump continued. "I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily."
Mills' office did not immediately respond to Trump's demand for an apology.
Trump was referring to his Feb. 21 interaction with Mills during a bipartisan meeting with governors in the White House. Near the end of his lengthy remarks to the group, Trump began talking about his recent executive order banning men from competing in girls' or women's sports.
Trump then asked if Maine's governor was present and asked Mills if Maine would comply with the executive order. Days earlier, a Republican state lawmaker had drawn national attention to Maine on social media by posting pictures and the name of a transgender high school athlete who had won a girls' track championship.
Mills told Trump that Maine was following state and federal laws.
“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said to Mills. “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,” replied Mills, a former state attorney general and district attorney.
The tense exchange made national headlines and created a buzz in Democratic circles because, at the time, many party activists were accusing party leaders of not doing more to stand up to Trump.
Within hours of the incident, however, the Trump administration launched several investigations into Maine's compliance with Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings, including sports. The Maine Human Rights Act, meanwhile, prohibits discrimination in school extracurricular activities against individuals based on their gender identity.
Since the incident, the Trump administration has moved to cut off federal funding to various programs in Maine, although much of it was eventually restored.
In recent days, both the U.S., Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education have declared that Maine is violating Title IX. The agencies then gave the state 10 days to come into compliance with the Trump administration's interpretation of the law and make other changes or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for additional potential sanctions.
Mills has been relatively quiet and largely avoided the media since the exchange at the White House. But that February evening, after the first investigations into Maine were launched, Mills sought to cast the coming legal battle in broader terms — as one over whether a president can legally withhold funds to a state that were authorized by Congress. She also had strong words for Trump, with whom she had previously clashed.
"Today, the President of the United States has targeted one particular group on one particular issue which Maine law has addressed," Mills said in her Feb. 21 statement. "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 office of Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said last week that it was still reviewing the notices of violations on Title IX as well as the proposed "resolution agreements" from the federal agencies.
