Gov. Janet Mills doubled down Monday, saying she stands for “the rule of law” after President Donald Trump asked her over the weekend to apologize for their February confrontation over Maine’s transgender athlete policies.
Without referring to Trump by name, Mills also said “if the current occupant of the White House wants to protect women and girls, he should start by protecting the women and teenage girls who are suffering miscarriages and dying because they can’t get basic, life-saving health care in states across this country.”
Mills, Maine’s first female governor and former attorney general, also rattled off other suggestions for Trump, such as how he should protect Social Security and Medicare for elderly women amid Trump, his “government efficiency” czar Elon Musk and GOP lawmakers eyeing the programs in their ongoing efforts to cut federal jobs and programs.
“If he cares about women and girls, he should talk about the little girls and boys and infants in Sudan and other countries who are dying right now because he has cut off their supply of food and life-saving medicines,” Mills told reporters Monday morning at a Bangor celebration of the resident purchase of a mobile home park. “If he truly cares about women and girls and people of this country, let’s see the economic plan. Let’s see the health care plan. Let’s see the education plan.”
It was the Democratic governor’s first public response to the Republican president after he posted Saturday on his social media platform Truth Social that Mills owes him a “full throated apology” following their clash at a White House event last month over Maine’s policies that allow transgender students to compete in sports aligned with their gender identity.
Trump also wrote Saturday that he wants Mills to make a statement saying “she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again” before the Trump administration’s pending legal attempt to force Maine to change its policies “can be settled.”
“I’m sure she will be able to do that quite easily,” Trump added.
After the February exchange, the Trump administration launched several investigations into Maine and its schools before swiftly determining they were violating the landmark Title IX law barring sex discrimination in education by allowing transgender athletes to compete, with the federal government also freezing and then unfreezing funds for the University of Maine System.
The Trump administration has given Maine officials until later this week to sign an agreement that would require the state to change its transgender high school athlete policies and return nearly $187,000 in federal funds. Legal experts have called Trump’s rationale dubious and noted he is making an untested legal argument that Title IX requires states to ban transgender girls from sports aligned with their gender identity.
Mills said Monday that she does not communicate with public officials “by social media.” While criticizing Trump’s tariffs on Canada, she also noted the Constitution says the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed” and that it does not allow Trump “to make laws out of gold cloth or by tweet or Instagram posts or press release or executive order.”
“That’s just fundamental law, and I stand for the rule of law and the separation of powers,” Mills said. “Look, the issue isn’t about transgender sports. People in Maine and across the country are waiting for an economic plan from the current occupant of the White House, and so far we’ve seen none.”
Trump first called out Mills last month during an event with other governors at the White House after Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, made a viral social media post that singled out a transgender Maine high school student who won a state track and field title. Trump told Mills he would pull federal funding from Maine if the state did not follow his executive order barring transgender female athletes from sports by changing its policies in place for years that allow transgender students to compete in scholastic sports.
Mills said Maine was following state and federal law before Trump said “we are the federal law.”
“We’ll see you in court,” Mills said.
“I look forward to that,” Trump replied. “That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
In response to a request for comment Monday, a White House spokesperson deferred to Trump’s Truth Social post.
Earlier this month, Mills also told reporters the state’s transgender student-athlete policies are “worthy of a debate” in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. She called Monday for more talk on “the real issues,” such as the economy.
“Let’s talk about the price of gas and the price of bread and automobiles,” Mills said. “Nothing’s going down. Everything’s going up.”
BDN writer Kathleen O’Brien contributed to this report.
