After Maine Gov. Janet Mills told Pres. Trump “See you in court,” her state is facing federal investigations.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Now to Maine and the response to its Democratic governor’s standoff with President Trump. It started just over a week ago with a confrontation in the White House. It has some looking at Governor Janet Mills as a hero. Others worry she’s put her state’s finances at risk over the issue of transgender athletes. Maine Public Radio’s Kevin Miller reports.
KEVIN MILLER, BYLINE: Trump had been speaking to the nation’s governors for nearly an hour when he paused and asked if Maine Governor Janet Mills was in the room. Days earlier, he had signed an order threatening to cut funding to states unless they banned transgender athletes in women’s sports, and a video of a transgender youth winning a track meet in Maine had gone viral on social media.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports.
JANET MILLS: I’ll follow the law.
TRUMP: So you better comply because otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding.
MILLER: Mills was off-mic, so her curt response – see you in court – is barely audible. But Trump heard her.
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TRUMP: Good. I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that.
MILLER: And those four words – see you in court – instantly struck a chord nationwide with Democratic activists and influencers. See you in court T-shirts are now for sale in Maine and online. And Maine’s governor is being lobbied even harder to challenge Republican Senator Susan Collins next year.
JIM MELCHER: I think some Democrats feel like their leaders haven’t shown a lot of courage, a lot of guts, and they’ve been looking for somebody to be a spokesperson.
MILLER: Jim Melcher teaches political science at the University of Maine in Farmington, a rural college town where Mills has lived for decades. Melcher describes Mills as a scrappy former prosecutor who doesn’t back down in court or on a political stage.
MELCHER: I think the visual of her standing up to Donald Trump, saying she wouldn’t be intimidated and see you in court, was a perfect way for her to end that. Give these people a slogan. Show somebody doing this.
MILLER: It’s unclear whether Trump can legally withhold federal funding from states when it’s been passed by Congress. But since the confrontation, the Trump administration has launched three investigations into Maine under Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex. And this week, Attorney General Pam Bondi threatened officials in Maine, California and Minnesota with lawsuits, unless the states fall in line.
JAMI TAYLOR: I was surprised to see the fight start off on the sports issue, given where the public’s attitudes are.
MILLER: Jami Taylor is a political science professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio and co-author of the 2018 book “The Remarkable Rise Of Transgender Rights.” Taylor says public opinion appears more aligned with Trump than with Maine’s policy, which prohibits discrimination in schools based on gender identity.
TAYLOR: I think the trans rights movement is going to take a loss on that issue.
MILLER: Republicans campaigned against transgender rights during the election and say the public agrees. Back in Maine, Republicans like State Senator Trey Stewart accuse Mills and Democratic lawmakers of risking hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid over a policy affecting a tiny number of students.
TREY STEWART: It’s incredibly unfortunate that Maine, which is already a poor state, already heavily reliant on federal funding, is now being jeopardized in our federal funding.
MILLER: Some members of Maine’s trans community are alarmed by the policy changes by Washington. Bre Danvers-Kidman, the co-executive director of the Maine Transgender Network, says it feels like the current debate is more about, quote, “adults bullying children” than transgender athletes. But Danvers-Kidman is heartened to see the pushback against Trump from Mills and Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey, who is preparing the state’s legal defense.
BRE DANVERS-KIDMAN: When there’s money involved, I think there’s always sort of a question of, like, are people going to stand up for the right thing, or are they going to decide it’s not worth it because it’s too much money? Because we’re not talking about a small amount of money here.
MILLER: Mills has been mostly quiet since her encounter with Trump, but in a written statement, she said the issue isn’t about athletics. It’s about whether a president can deny a state money over a political dispute. And with billions of dollars at stake in Maine and other states, governors will be watching when the two sides do see each other in court.
For NPR News, I’m Kevin Miller in Augusta, Maine.
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