On February 21, 2025, President Donald Trump and Maine’s Governor Janet Mills had a heated discussion at a White House event involving governors. The disagreement centered on the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Trump threatened to cut federal funding to Maine if the state didn’t adhere to his executive order, issued earlier that month, prohibiting transgender girls and women from competing in female sports.
During the bipartisan meeting, Trump quizzed Mills about Maine’s adherence to his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. The order, signed on February 5, instructs federal agencies to interpret Title IX regulations as excluding transgender girls and women from female sports.
Trump asked Mills directly, “Are you not going to comply with that?” referring to his executive order.
Mills stated her intention to abide by both state and federal laws, leading Trump to declare, “Well, I’m — we are the federal law,” and added, “Well, 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 exchange turned more contentious when Mills retorted: “See you in court.”
“Good,” Trump retorted. “I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be an easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
After the White House incident, Mills issued a statement backing Maine’s stance. She said that if the president tries to unilaterally strip Maine schoolchildren of federal funding benefits, her administration and the Maine attorney general will take all necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunities it provides. She confirmed that Maine will not be bullied by presidential threats.
The conflict between Trump and Mills reflects a broader struggle between federal executive orders and state laws. Currently, Maine has no laws preventing transgender girls from participating on teams aligned with their gender identity, and the Maine Human Rights Act explicitly protects transgender athletes.
Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey stated that any attempt by Trump to cut federal funding over this issue would be unlawful and breach federal court orders. Frey pointed out that the president can’t legally withhold funds allocated by Congress for specific purposes.
The conflict took a new turn on February 21 when the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the U.S. Department of Education announced a “directed investigation” into the Maine Department of Education. The investigation is based on allegations that the state continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ sports, according to a department press release.
The department pointed to a Maine high school that allegedly enabled at least one male student to compete in girls’ events. The investigation was triggered after a Republican state representative in Maine named a transgender high school student who had won a girls’ pole vault championship in a Facebook post.
Similar investigations have started into the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation, over supposed violations of federal anti-discrimination laws. The Department of Education insists that state laws do not supersede federal anti-discrimination laws, and it will ensure taxpayer funds aren’t used to finance what it views as civil rights violations.
Trump’s executive order, issued on February 5, aims to safeguard opportunities for women and girls to compete in “safe and fair sports.” The order instructs the Secretary of Education to “affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and locker rooms” and prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against institutions permitting transgender women to participate in women’s sports.
The order also requires the federal government to gather representatives from athletic organizations, female athletes, and state attorneys general to promote policies in line with the administration’s interpretation of Title IX. It also instructs the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to review and adjust policies allowing “males seeking to participate in women’s sports in the United States.”
Following Trump’s directive, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) updated its participation policy for transgender student-athletes, restricting competition in women’s sports to those assigned female at birth. The NCAA did not completely ban transgender women from competing in women’s sports. Instead, the policy now requires hormone level testing and is still under review.
Trump’s executive order was issued on the 39th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day, a point highlighted by critics of the order. LGBTQ rights organizations have labeled the order as “discriminatory” and an attempt at “fearmongering” about what they consider a “vanishingly small subset” of people.
Legal challenges to the executive order have already started. Two transgender high school students in New Hampshire have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the order. Legal experts suggest that the Supreme Court’s eventual decision on this case could set a national precedent, as the Court has not yet made a final ruling on transgender athletes in K-12 sports.
As the controversy over the participation of transgender athletes in sports continues, attention now shifts to the courts. They will test the legal boundaries of executive power and the interpretation of Title IX. For Maine, which receives about 10% of its education budget from federal sources, the financial implications are substantial.
