Trump demands full-throated apology from Maine gov on trans sports flap to settle funding dispute even as universities back down
President Trump on Saturday demanded a “full-throated” apology from Maine Gov.Janet Mills (D) before his administration can settle its dispute with the state for defying his executive order banning transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.The University of Maine System (UMS) backed down earlier this week and promised to follow the executive order on transgender competition, but Trump suggested the dispute over federal funding won’t be resolved until Mills’ mea culpa.“While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“We need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled.”On Feb.
5, Trump signed an executive order that effectively banned transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports or else get cut off from federal funds.But top athletic associations in The Pine Tree State quickly resisted Trump’s order.A few weeks later, news of a transgender competitor from Cumberland’s Greely High School — competing under the name “Katie” — won the Class B girls’ state championship in pole vaulting by a considerable margin, got the administration’s hackles up.
Trump then confronted Mills at a governor’s summit later that month, chastising her and warning that she “better comply.” Mills was defiant and shot back, “See you in court.”Days later, the Trump administration launched an investigation into Maine, which The Post broke exclusively, to determine whether the state was flouting Title IX, a provision of the Civil Rights Act that restricts schools that engage in sex-based discrimination from getting federal funds.That probe p...