President Donald Trump sparred with Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills over transgender girls in sports activities, telling her on the White Home that she should observe his government order or “you are not going to get any federal funding,” to which she replied, “we’ll see you in court docket.”
The blue state is one among a number of defying Trump’s Feb. 5 government order stopping trans athletes from competing in ladies’ and girls’s sports activities. Trump threatened Thursday to chop off federal funding to Maine earlier than clashing with Mills at a bipartisan assembly of governors.
“Are you not going to adjust to that?” Trump requested Mills.
“I am complying with state and federal legal guidelines,” she responded, earlier than Trump mentioned “Effectively, we’re the federal regulation” and “you higher do it, you higher do it since you’re not going to get any federal funding in any respect in the event you do not.
TRUMP VOWS TO CUT OFF FEDERAL FUNDING TO MAINE OVER REFUSAL TO COMPLY WITH ‘NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS’ ORDER
President Donald Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills clashed Friday on the White Home over government order compliance. (Pool by way of AP/Win McNamee/Getty Pictures)
“And by the way in which, your inhabitants, despite the fact that it is considerably liberal, though I did very effectively there, your inhabitants does not need males taking part in in girls’s sports activities, so that you higher comply as a result of in any other case you are not getting any federal funding,” Trump continued.
“We’ll see you in court docket,” Mills responded.
“Good, I am going to see you in court docket. I sit up for that. That must be an actual straightforward one. And revel in your life after governor as a result of I do not suppose you may be in elected politics,” Trump concluded.
Mills launched an announcement on Friday, saying that “The State of Maine is not going to be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
“If the President makes an attempt to unilaterally deprive Maine college kids of the advantage of Federal funding, my Administration and the Legal professional Basic will take all acceptable and mandatory authorized motion to revive that funding and the educational alternative it offers,” she added.
WISCONSIN BANS TRANS ATHLETES FROM GIRLS’ SPORTS, FOLLOWING TRUMP’S EXECUTIVE ORDER
President Donald Trump speaks on the Governors Working Session within the State Eating Room of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Feb. 21. (Pool by way of AP)
Trump informed a gathering of Republican governors in Washington, D.C., on Thursday that “I heard males are nonetheless taking part in in Maine.”
“I hate to inform you this, however we’re not going to provide them any federal cash, they’re nonetheless saying ‘we would like males to play in girls’s sports activities’ and I can not imagine that they are doing that… So we’re not going to provide them any federal funding, none in any way, till they clear that up,” he added.
Trump’s government order, which was signed on Feb. 5, instructed all federal businesses to overview grants, applications and insurance policies that fail to adjust to the administration’s efforts to finish “male aggressive participation in girls’s sports activities… as a matter of security, equity, dignity, and reality.”
The order additionally instructed strict Title IX enforcement in opposition to any academic establishments or athletic associations that don’t comply and calls for federal help be taken away in such instances.
Shortly after the order was signed, a number of states, together with Maine, California, Minnesota and others run primarily by Democrats, indicated that they might not adjust to Trump.
President Donald Trump arrives on the Governors Working Session within the State Eating Room of the White Home on Friday, Feb. 21. (Francis Chung/Politico/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)
The manager director of the first governing physique for highschool sports activities within the state of Maine mentioned athletic groups will proceed to find out eligibility primarily based on a scholar’s said gender identification, regardless of the president’s government order searching for to maintain “males out of ladies’s sports activities.”
Fox Information’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
