President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine after the state’s Democratic Gov. Janet Mills refused to say that she would enforce his administration’s ban on transgender women and girls competing in sports.

Their brief but heated exchange during a meeting of the National Governors Association at the White House on Friday kicked off when Mills agreed only to abide by “state and federal law” and Trump told her, “We are the federal law. You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding if you don’t.”

“See you in court,” Mills responded.

“Good,” Trump agreed, “I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”

Two days after Trump’s issuance of the executive order”Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” on Feb. 5, the governing body responsible for overseeing high school sports in Maine said trans athletes would still be allowed to compete because the ban was in conflict with provisions of the Maine state Human Rights Act.

The president previewed his proposal to condition federal funding on states’ compliance with the policy during a meeting on Thursday of the Republican Governors Association.

Earlier on Friday, Mills vowed in a statement that “If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children from the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides.”

Echoing her comments, the state’s Democratic Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement Friday morning that “Any attempt by the President to cut federal funding in Maine unless transgender athletes are restricted from playing sports would be illegal and in direct violation of court orders.”

“Fortunately, though, the rule of law still applies in this country, and I will do everything in my power to defend Maine’s laws and block efforts by the President to bully and threaten us,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued another executive order taking aim at the transgender community, this time focusing on eligibility for sports participation.

In a signing ceremony for “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” in the East Room of the White House, the president proclaimed “With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over.”

Despite the insistence by Trump and Republicans that trans women and girls have a biological advantage in sports over cisgender women and girls, the research has been inconclusive, at best.

A study in the peer reviewed Sports Medicine journal found “no direct or consistent research” pointing to this conclusion. A different review in 2023 found that post-pubertal differences are “reduced, if not erased, over time by gender affirming hormone therapy.”

Other critics of efforts to exclude trans student athletes have pointed to the small number of people who are impacted. Charlie Baker, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, testified last year that fewer than 10 of the NCAA’s 522,000+ student athletes identify as trans.

The Trump-Vance administration has reversed course from the Biden-Harris administration’s policy on Title IX rules barring sex-based discrimination.

“If you’re going to have women’s sports, if you’re going to provide opportunities for women, then they have to be equally safe, equally fair, and equally private opportunities, and so that means that you’re going to preserve women’s sports for women,” a White House official said prior to the issuance of the order.

Former President Joe Biden’s Title IX rules, which went into effect last year, clarified that pursuant to the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), sex-based discrimination includes that which is based on the victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The White House official indicated that the administration will consider additional guidance, regulations, and interpretations of Title IX, as well as exploring options to handle noncompliance by threatening federal funding for schools and education programs.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump “does expect the Olympic Committee and the NCAA to no longer allow men to compete in women’s sports.”

One of the first legislative moves by the new Congress last month was House Republicans’ passage of the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” which would ban trans women and girls from participating in competitive athletics.

The bill is now before the U.S. Senate, where Republicans have a three-seat majority but would need 60 votes to overcome the filibuster.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order barring gender-affirming health care for minors, the latest action by the newly seated administration that takes aim at the rights and protections of transgender Americans.

The executive order, which prohibits the federal government from engaging in activities to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” trans medicine for patients younger than 19, is based on arguments that these treatments lead to financial hardship and regret later in life.

In reality, scientific and medical organizations publish and maintain clinical practice guidelines on gender-affirming care that are based on hundreds of peer reviewed studies assessing the relative risks and benefits associated with each intervention.

“Everyone deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions for themselves and their families — no matter your income, zip code, or health coverage,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “This executive order is a brazen attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors, preventing them from accessing evidence-based health care supported by every major medical association in the country.”

Robinson added, “It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions. Questions about this care should be answered by doctors — not politicians — and decisions must rest with families, doctors, and the patient.”

HRC noted that in practical terms, the federal government will effectuate this policy by taking such actions as “removing coverage for gender-affirming care from federal health insurance policies, modifying requirements under the Affordable Care Act, and preventing hospitals or other medical providers who accept Medicare or Medicaid, or who receive federal funding for research or education, from providing gender-affirming care of any kind to people under the age of 19.”

“This executive order to deny young transgender people access to the evidence-based, medically-necessary and often lifesaving care they need is an attempt by Donald Trump to insert himself into doctors’ offices across the country and override their medical judgment,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

“Decisions about a young person’s healthcare belong with the patient, their families, and their doctors,” he added. “Politicians should not be overriding the private medical decisions of any person, period.”