Gov. Janet Mills and President Donald Trump got into a heated exchange at the White House on Friday over his threats to cut off all federal funding to Maine because transgender athletes are allowed to compete in girls’ sports.

Shortly after the brief public argument, the U.S. Department of Education announced it would investigate Maine’s refusal to ban transgender athletes. The administration also said it would investigate the Cumberland-North Yarmouth school district for allowing a transgender student to compete in the girls indoor track state finals last weekend.

The confrontation, which was captured on video and posted to social media, came as Trump was addressing governors who had gathered in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting.

Trump noted that the NCAA had complied with his executive order prohibiting men from participating in women’s sports and then asked if the governor of Maine was in attendance.

“Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked Mills.

“I’m complying with state and federal law,” Mills shot back.

“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump said. “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,” Mills replied.

“I look forward to that — that should be a real easy one,” Trump said. “And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”

Heated exchange between President Trump and Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) over executive order banning transgender women in sports

President Trump: “Are you not going to comply with that?”@GovJanetMills: “I’m complying with state and federal laws.”

Trump: “We are the federal law.… pic.twitter.com/O7my5uN45W

— CSPAN (@cspan) February 21, 2025

The exchange came a day after Trump said at a Republican gathering in Washington that he heard “men are still playing” in Maine.

“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money. They’re still saying they want men to play in women’s sports, and I cannot believe they’re doing that,” he said. “So we’re not going to give them any money, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”

On Friday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced it would be investigating the Maine Department of Education and School Administrative District 51.

“Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics —that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in a written statement from the U.S. DOE. “If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice.”

According to an analysis in September by Pew Charitable Trusts, federal grants accounted for 40.7%, or $5.41 billion, of the Maine’s annual state revenue.

The federal education department announced investigations earlier this month into athletic associations in two other states, California and Minnesota, where it said the federal directive is also not being followed.

Both Mills and Attorney General Aaron Frey issued written statements Friday morning pledging to fight any attempt to cut off the state’s funding. “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats,” Mills said.

After the administration announced the investigations later Friday, Mills said the conflict was about more than the rights of transgender athletes.

“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 in a written statement.

“I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined. My Administration will begin work with the Attorney General to defend the interests of Maine people in the court of law. But do not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.”

A professor at the University of Maine School of Law said he believes it would be unconstitutional for Trump to withhold all federal funding from the state over this one issue.

Professor Dmitry Bam, who teaches constitutional law among other topics, said Congress has the power to allocate funding and set conditions that states must meet to receive federal grants. Those conditions must be clearly established by Congress and not designed to coerce states to follow a particular directive. And they can’t be changed after a funding agreement is reached, he said.

“The way the case law is written is that the conditions need to be enacted and clearly indicated by Congress, so the president can’t come in and make up and create his own conditions,” Bam said.

The Maine Principals’ Association, which oversees high school sports in Maine, allows transgender student athletes to compete either on the team that aligns with their sex assigned at birth or the one aligned with their gender identity, but not both, and has said that the policy is meant to align with state law under the Maine Human Rights Act.

The law states that the opportunity to participate in “all educational … and all extracurricular activities without discrimination because of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, a physical or mental disability, ancestry, national origin, race, color or religion is recognized and declared to be a civil right.”

Mike Burnham, executive director of the interscholastic division at the Maine Principals’ Association, would not discuss the policy or Trump’s remarks with a reporter Friday and referred questions to Mills and Frey.

Trump signed an executive order earlier this month saying the federal government would deny federal funding for schools that allow transgender athletes assigned male at birth to compete on women’s teams. While the NCAA has since banned transgender athletes from competing,  officials in Maine and more than 20 other states have not changed their policies allowing participation, saying the order does not override federal and state laws.

Frey said Friday that any attempt to cut off funding to force Maine to change its policy would be illegal and in direct violation of federal court orders. “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,” he said.

Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has been pushing back on Trump’s efforts to withhold federal funding approved by Congress, said she would “advocate vigorously for our fair share of federal funding for Maine schools.”

Collins said she agrees that transgender athletes should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports, saying that it undermines the purpose of the Title IX program, which expanded opportunities for women playing high school and college level sports.

“One of the keys to the success of Title IX has been fair and safe athletic competition,” Collins said in a written statement. “Allowing biological males who identify as transgender to compete in women’s sports has threatened to undermine the core purposes behind Title IX. This is not a political issue; this is a matter of biology.”

But Collins said it was an issue for state leaders to decide. “State officials will have to make their own decisions about how they want to conduct athletic competitions in Maine.”

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has spoken out about why he believes Trump is overstepping his authority by withholding federal funding and eliminating federal programs that have been approved by Congress. When asked whether King agrees with Trump’s executive order on transgender athletes, a spokesman said that King believes “it is not a federal matter.”

Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, said in a written statement that he doesn’t support Maine’s current policy, but the Trump administration is wrong to withhold federal funding over a policy dispute.

“Every child has a right to a quality education and it’s wrong to punish every Maine school over a policy disagreement that applies to a small fraction of students,” Golden said. “But I also believe the state got this policy wrong; in public schools in Maine, biological boys shouldn’t compete in sports against biological girls. While we in Congress wrestle over the role of the federal government versus the states in education, state political and education leaders have the authority to resolve this issue, and they should.”

Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, blasted Trump, saying that courts have repeatedly found that the federal government cannot “withhold funding arbitrarily or use it as leverage to undermine established civil rights protections.”

“Federal funding is not a political bargaining chip,” Pingree said in a written statement. “President Trump’s threat to cut off funding to Maine is not only an egregious abuse of power — it’s an unconstitutional act of coercion designed to force states into compliance with his extreme and discriminatory agenda.”

Meanwhile, some Republicans in Maine, including Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, welcomed Trump’s remarks.

The president’s threat came days after Libby made a widely circulated social media post that included photos of a high school athlete and criticized the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in school sports.

And in an interview with conservative commentator Todd Starnes before Trump’s speech, Libby said that pulling federal funding for Maine seems to be the only thing that would ensure that only biological females are competing in girls’ sports.

“I don’t think the Democratic majority is going to listen to reason until money talks, and that includes the federal funding getting yanked for Maine schools,” Libby said.

On Friday, Libby shared a video on Facebook of Trump’s comments about cutting of funding to Maine.

“President Trump pledges to step in to protect girls’ sports in Maine and clean up the failure by both the Maine Principals’ Association and the Maine Democrat Majority!” her post said.

Maine House Minority Leader Katrina Smith, R-Palermo, who had encouraged constituents to ask the U.S. Department of Education for an investigation of the issue, said in a Facebook post Friday morning that, “We still have a battle ahead as the Democrats are going to dig in their heels and attempt to defy the President, but I believe victory will be ours.”

“This chapter is closing on the dark time in history where women’s rights and edification were lost to an agenda seeking to confuse and harm our kids,” Smith wrote.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham contributed to this story.

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