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“A few months ago, I stood in the White House and, when confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I’d see him in court,” Maine Gov. Janet Mills said last Friday. “Well, I did see him in court. And we won.”
After weeks of public fulminating, the administration quietly folded and quit trying to steal kids’ lunch money for the grievous sin of letting a couple of trans girls play sports.
It’s a heartening reminder that Trump, like any bully, can be fought and beaten.
“We are the federal law”
The trouble started at a February 21 White House lunch with the state governors.
President Trump’s speech that day was even more rambling and incoherent than usual. He explained that FEMA is bad, but he would soon be making it good by ensuring that no one from Alaska would be sent to Florida to say “boy, this is hot here” and overcharge for disaster relief work. He promised to put Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent on the job, or possibly Secretary of State Marco Rubio because “Marco's very good with money.” But not EPA administrator Lee Zeldin “because Lee's going to say, what's this all about, huh?” It does not appear to have occurred to Trump that FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security, run by Secretary Kristi Noem. (Congress has since moved to make this hallucination a reality, proposing to transform FEMA into an independent agency.)
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At one point, Trump interrupted his stream of rambling semi-consciousness to single out Governor Mills for defying his executive order barring trans athletes from playing sports.
“I'm complying with state and federal laws,” she countered evenly.
“We are the federal law,” Trump spluttered, adding “you better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.”
“We'll see you in court,” Mills replied.
“Good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” he raged. “And enjoy your life after governor, because I don't think you'll be in elected politics. Every state has a responsibility to comply with Title IX, to have an obligation, a legal obligation. And we'll be enforcing aggressively.” (Watch below.)
It was not, in fact, “a real easy one.”
Retaliation
The Trump administration’s attacks on Maine began immediately.
The day after Trump lashed out at Mills, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services announced they were conducting investigations of the state for supposedly depriving cisgender girls of their civil rights by making them play on teams with trans girls.
Social Security Administrator Lee Dudek barred Maine residents from reporting births and deaths at hospital funeral homes, despite being told that it would increase fraud. He said it was worth it to ensure that “no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child.” After enormous public pushback, he reversed the order, saying "I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president. I’ll admit I screwed up.”
