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If elected officials are looking for how to stand up to President Donald Trump and his illegal bullying threats, they should look to Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
Trump blasted Maine and Mills at a White House event for the nation’s governors on Thursday because the state has refused to change its policies on transgender student athletes. Trump threatened to withhold federal funding if the state did not prohibit transgender athletes from participating in sports based on their gender identity.
“You’d better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” Trump told Mills. It was unclear if he meant federal funding for education or all federal funding that comes to Maine.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Gov. Mills said when asked by Trump if the state planned to comply with his order restricting transgender athletes.
Trump then said “we are the federal law.”
No sir, you are not the federal law.
Congress, not the president, writes and amends the laws of the United States. Congress, not the president, allocates funding to federal agencies and programs. Federal courts are upholding these core tenets of our democracy as Trump seeks to undermine them.
Federal law requires that all people, including the tiny number of transgender Americans, be treated equally. Further, Title IX prohibits discrimination in education based on sex, which includes gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. That is federal law. Federal law is not simply what the president says it is.
“If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” Mills said in a statement Friday. “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the president’s threats.”
The governor’s message was simple: Maine will follow the law. She didn’t get into her personal feelings about transgender athletes or any other American. Because her personal feelings don’t matter. The governor, like the president, is responsible for upholding laws that protect the rights of all Mainers and all Americans.
Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey backed up the governor’s position.
“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,” Frey said in a statement. “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.”
Earlier this month, Trump signed an executive order that threatens to withhold federal funds if trans girls and women are allowed to compete in girls and women’s sports.
The Maine Principals’ Association, which runs high school sports, affirmed this month it will continue to allow trans athletes to compete in accordance with the Maine Human Rights Act. Between 2013 and 2021, the association heard from 56 transgender students wishing to participate in high school athletics. Only four of them were trans girls.
The president of the United States is threatening to withhold federal funding to Maine so he and his supporters can punish, demean, and dehumanize a tiny number of girls.
But that wasn’t enough, Trump also took a personal swipe at Mills, a Democrat.
He said she’d better enjoy her retirement because “I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.” Mills, who is 77, has not said if she plans to run for other elected offices. She was the first female district attorney in New England, the first female attorney general in Maine and the state’s first female governor. She was re-elected in 2022 by resoundingly defeating Trump-like former Republican Gov. Paul LePage.
Trump’s threat to withhold funding is a very serious matter and it could really hurt Maine. But complying with this order would open the door to demands to comply with future orders that restrict Americans’ rights. Not to be overly dramatic, but we’ve seen this playbook before.
“Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his administration, but we won’t be the last,” Mills said in a statement late Friday after the Trump administration announced that it would investigate Maine’s policies for transgender athletes. “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?” the governor added. “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,” Mills said.
Mills has shown leadership and bravery in standing up to Trump’s bullying and his demands to follow his orders rather than state and federal laws. It shouldn’t be brave to pledge to follow and uphold our laws.
Mills stood up to Trump, but more importantly she stood up for the rule of law. This is what is essential for stopping the worst of Trump’s harmful threats and actions.