Controversy has been increasing since President Trump made dozens of executive orders during his first 100 days. On Feb. 21, Trump had a governor’s meeting at the White House to push his executive orders onto the states. The Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, has denied following Trump’s push for eliminating federal funding for individual states for transgender athletes.
Janet Mills is the 75th and first woman Governor of Maine. She was sworn into office on Jan. 2, 2019. Mills was Maine’s previous attorney general and fought for democratic ideology. She seeks to help education become more affordable to residents and wants to put families first. Some may see this as controversial, as her small conversation with Trump sparked anger in some republican Maine residents.
In a heated argument between Mills and Trump, Trump threatened the governor to comply with new federal law. According to the Associated Press, “‘He again threatened the state’s federal funding and said Maine may be a Democratic state but its residents largely agree with him on this issue.” […] “We’re going to follow the law,” she said.” […] “You’d better comply,” Trump warned. “Otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.” […] “We’ll see you in court,” the governor replied.” […] “Good, I’ll see you in court. 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.”’
Since cutting back on federal spending, Trump wants to eliminate the government’s spending on transgender individuals. Trump hopes to extract all transgender military personnel and believes that transgender women should not be allowed to play in women’s sports. Trump’s executive order describes ‘gender’ as an individual’s born sex.
Trump described how states that do not comply with these new laws will be penalized by decreased federal funding to individual states. For example, governors who disobey the executive order will receive little to no federal funding for educational programs or federal grants. This could drastically affect states that have smaller populations, such as Maine, and can cause educational programs to go downhill due to a pause of revenue that some schools rely on by the federal government.
Trump predicts that the non-compliance of Mills will lead to the end of her political career as the majority of voters voted Republican in the 2024 election. According to PBS News, “Later Friday, the U.S. Department of Education said it was initiating an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the inclusion of transgender athletes.”
Most stated how the interaction between the two politicians was unusual due to the norm of curiosity in the White House. Around 39% of Maine residents believe that Mills has been performing poorly to benefit the state. Some see her interaction with Trump as ‘risky’ with a fear of eventually having reduced to no federal funding.
There is no clear answer if Trump will actually cut Maine’s federal funding, but it is evident that Maine is going to continue to protect transgender youths and athletes.
