During a meeting of governors at the White House on Friday, February 21, 2025, a heated argument broke out between President Donald Trump and Maine Governor Janet Mills. The contentious issue at hand was the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The verbal clash intensified when the president threatened to cut off federal funding to the state of Maine if it failed to adhere to his recent executive order. The order, signed on February 5, seeks to prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports competitions.
At the bipartisan event, Trump directly questioned Governor Mills about her state’s compliance with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. This directive instructs federal agencies to interpret Title IX rules as barring transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports.
“Are you not going to comply with that?” the president asked Mills, referring to his executive order.
She answered by saying she would follow both state and federal laws. This prompted Trump to declare, “Well, I’m — we are the federal law,” adding, “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 situation got more tense when Mills retorted: “See you in court.”
“Good,” Trump responded. “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.”
Post the White House face-off, Mills issued a statement defending her state’s stance. She vowed that if the President tries to single-handedly strip Maine’s schoolchildren of the benefits of federal funding, her administration, in conjunction with the Maine Attorney General, would take all necessary legal steps to restore the funding and the academic opportunities it offers. She further affirmed that Maine would not be cowed by the president’s threats.
This altercation between Trump and Mills is indicative of a larger conflict between federal executive orders and state laws. Currently, Maine does not have laws preventing transgender girls from playing on teams that align with their gender identity, and the Maine Human Rights Act explicitly safeguards transgender athletes.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey has stated that any attempt by Trump to slash federal funding over this matter would be illegal and in violation of federal court orders. Frey emphasized that the president does not have the legal authority to withhold funds that Congress has designated for specific uses.
The controversy took a fresh turn on Friday when the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a “directed investigation” into the Maine Department of Education. This investigation stems from accusations that the state has continued to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ sports, according to a department press release.
The department pointed to a specific Maine high school which, it alleged, has permitted at least one male student to compete in girls’ events. This investigation was initiated after a Republican state representative in Maine mentioned a transgender high school student who had won a girls’ pole vault championship in a Facebook post.
Similar investigations have been started into the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation over purported violations of federal anti-discrimination laws. The Department of Education insists that state laws cannot supersede federal anti-discrimination laws, and that it will ensure taxpayer money is not used to fund what it deems as civil rights violations.
Trump’s executive order, signed on February 5, seeks to protect what the administration refers to as opportunities for women and girls to compete in “safe and fair sports.” The order directs the Secretary of Education to “affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and locker rooms” and to prioritize Title IX enforcement actions against institutions that permit transgender women to participate in women’s sports.
Additionally, the order mandates the federal government to assemble representatives of athletic organizations, female athletes, and state attorneys general to promote policies that are in line with the administration’s interpretation of Title IX. It also calls for the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to review and modify policies that allow “males seeking to participate in women’s sports in the United States.”
Already, the order has triggered considerable policy changes in college sports. 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 athletes who were assigned female at birth. This new policy, which took effect immediately, applies to all athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews.
The signing of Trump’s executive order coincided with the 39th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day, a fact highlighted by critics of the order. LGBTQ rights organizations have slammed the order as “discriminatory” and an attempt at “fearmongering” about an exceedingly small group of individuals.
Legal battles against the executive order have already started. Two transgender high school students in New Hampshire have filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the order. Legal analysts observe that the Supreme Court’s final ruling on this case could set a precedent for the rest of the nation, as the Court has not yet made a final decision on transgender athletes in K-12 sports.
As the dispute over the participation of transgender athletes in sports continues to unfold, attention now shifts to the courts. They will be tasked with determining the legal limits of executive power and the interpretation of Title IX. For Maine, which relies on federal sources for around 10% of its education budget, the financial implications are significant.
