President Donald Trump wants an apology from Maine’s Governor Janet Mills over a dialogue – perhaps one can go so far as to say “confrontation,” that occurred this past February during the White House Governors’ Conference, and Trump wants it now. Strangely, it sounds as though Trump is unwilling to release any federal funds to Maine even though an underlying lawsuit has been withdrawn – pending the apology.
All of this springs from a Trump executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. This is a very tough subject because, as a daughter-dad, I am sympathetic to teen girls competing against kids with frames that went through male puberty. I don’t think there is an easy blanket answer. I do think that within the spectrum of issues pertaining to transgendered Americans’ rights – athletics seems to fall below discrimination against one’s basic self-identity, workplace rights, the right to serve in the military, etc. The E.O. applied to schools from the collegiate level down, and like many executive orders, it is premised on withholding federal funds if the state chooses to go the other way. The threat to withhold federal funds isn’t unusual. It is used to establish a national drinking age, enforcement against discrimination, and many other contexts. But that doesn’t mean that the order doesn’t violate the Constitution in other ways, perhaps Equal Protection and other issues – those issues would have to be settled in court.
The “confrontation” didn’t happen in court. It happened in front of a bunch of cameras and governors. Below we see the original exchange brought to us by Grok:
President Donald Trump: [Speaking about his executive order] “The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way, and that’s good. I understand Maine—is Maine here? The governor of Maine?”
Governor Janet Mills: “Yeah, I’m here.”
Trump: “Are you not going to comply with it?”
Mills: “I’m complying with state and federal laws.”
Trump: “Well, we are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal—although I did very well there—your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So you’d better comply, otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding.”
Mills: “We’ll see you in court.”
Trump: “Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Yes, the exchange is testier than one generally expects between an American president and governor, but the promise to comply with the law while taking the issue to court is hardly radical or inflammatory. As to Trump’s snark at the end – well, that’s just his thing and no one really expects anything different at this point.
But the matter has come up again because Maine just dropped the lawsuit (the “see you in court” part) likely after evaluating the law, the politics, and upside-downside considerations, and will comply with the order. This, again – is quite typical, happens all the time. From a report in Mediaite, we have the USDA’s announcement from Wednesday:
After the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated a Title IX compliance review regarding federal funding, the University of Maine System (UMaine) has clearly communicated its compliance with Title IX’s requirement to protect equal opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports, as articulated in President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order. Any false claim by the UMaine can, and will, result in onerous and even potentially criminal financial liability. UMaine’s decision to side with sanity is a win for women and girls in Maine.
That would seem to be the end of that, though the “side with sanity” is too much. Be that as it may, President Trump’s executive order will be complied with and people on all sides will continue to assert their rights. This is as it should be. But Trump now wants a “full throated apology” from Gov. Mills. This morning, he wrote:
“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. 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. I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily. Thank you for your attention to this matter and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”
🚨Morning Digest: President Trump Demands Unconditional Apology from Maine Governor Janet Mills for Defying Federal Order Banning Men from Participating in Women's Sports, Seeking Personal Acknowledgement of Wrongdoing and Assurance of Future Compliance.
— DAILYSPARK (@dailyspark.bsky.social) 2025-03-22T14:52:21.780Z
It sure sounds like Trump is demanding a personal apology or he will continue to withhold the funds even though the case has been settled. Even weirder, it’s hard to figure out what he wants Mills to apologize for. He was the one who specifically called Maine out. The governor did nothing more than say that she will have Maine comply with the law and the “See you in court” thing was merely a response to the promise to withhold federal funds – again, something Trump directed toward her. He specifically called her out. She did nothing more than commit to the law and tell him that they’d settle the matter in court, not a press conference.
The matter should be going away, at least if the concern is balancing the rights of transgendered athletes versus those of teen girls. But Trump wants an apology for “such an unlawful challenge” – even though she never said anything unlawful, nor was she the one who confronted him. If one revisits the matter, it appears that she only wanted to avoid arguing about it in front of cameras in a setting that wouldn’t be definitive anyway. The order will be challenged, whether it was Maine or some individual athletes, and judges – not the press, will evaluate the constitutionality.
Now the entire state of Maine has to worry whether federal funding depends on the governor apologizing for simply asserting the state’s official position (And it may not have even been her position, it’s possible that Maine’s attorney general makes legal calls regarding compliance with state law and federal executive orders). It sets a really bad precedent – things are getting way too personal on a lot of fronts. Moreover, protection of basic civil rights, especially as applied to transgendered teens, is complicated enough without dragging this matter further into the spotlight.
Look for the underlying suit to be quietly dismissed in a one-sentence court order this coming week, if not already. Ideally, that will be the end of this case and the funding will be sent as expected. There will, however, likely be challenges brought by individual athletes – and none of them are after an apology.
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She’s got more balls than he does. You go girl!
That’s not hard. Trump.is a coward who punches down, never up.He hates her because she didn’t worship him.
A full throated apology?
The only thing Trump has done full throated in his life is with Putin in private.
Is there anyone more thin-skinned than Donnie Dotard? He’s not happy till he’s able to humiliate others. What a waste of skin.
Jason, my only problem with your asinine “as a daughter-dad, I am sympathetic to teen girls competing against kids with frames that went through male puberty” cop-out because you’re ignoring a simple fact. If those “kids with frames that went through male puberty” were ALLOWED to use hormone blockers that would stop, or drastically minimize, the effects of said “male puberty,” then there wouldn’t be this asinine argument.
Right-wing transphobes (and, apparently, some “allies”) fail to understand their blatant hypocrisy on the issue. They scream and rant and rave against the “unfair advantage” that trans female athletes have while screaming and ranting and raving against allowing those same trans females from accessing the stuff that would put a stop to that “unfair advantage.”
Exactly.