The Trump administration announced an investigation into Maine public schools on Friday following a tense exchange between President Donald Trump and the state’s liberal governor.
The announcement from the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Division comes amid reports that the state was ignoring Trump’s order barring funding for public schools that continued to allow biological males to compete in all-female sporting events. It also comes after a tense exchange on Friday between Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
During a meeting with governors at the White House, the president spoke about his executive order and specifically called out the state of Maine and Mills for their refusal to comply with the order, with Trump vowing to cut off federal funding to the state until it complies with the order.
“The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way. That’s good,” President Trump said of the executive order before directing his attention to Maine.
“Is Maine here? The governor of Maine? Are you not going to comply with it?” Trump asked.
“I’ll comply with state and federal laws,” the governor responded.
“Well, we are the federal law,” he said. “You better do it.”
“You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t. And by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal, although I did very well there, your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports,” he added.
“So you better comply because otherwise, you’re not getting any federal funding,” he said before Mills responded, saying, “We’ll see you in court!”
“I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. That should be a real easy one,” Trump responded before taking a dig at Mills: “And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
Heated exchange between President Trump and Gov. Janet Mills (D-ME) over executive order banning transgender women in sports
President Trump: “Are you not going to comply with that?”@GovJanetMills: “I’m complying with state and federal laws.”
Trump: “We are the federal law.… pic.twitter.com/O7my5uN45W
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 21, 2025
Hours after this tense showdown, the department announced that it had begun an investigation into Maine’s adherence to federal Title IX laws.
“Maine would have you believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics—that is, that it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls. Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Education Department, it has to follow Title IX. If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample the rights of its young female athletes, that, too, is its choice. OCR will do everything in its power to ensure taxpayers are not funding blatant civil rights violators,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said.
“Today the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a letter to the Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin announcing that OCR is initiating a directed investigation of the Maine Department of Education (MDOE) amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls’ interscholastic athletics and that it has denied female athletes female-only intimate facilities, thereby violating federal antidiscrimination law,” his office said in its announcement.
“The letter also notifies MDOE that OCR is launching an investigation into Maine School Administrative District #51 (MSAD #51), after it was reported that Greely High School, a school under its jurisdiction, is continuing to allow at least one male student to compete in girls’ categories,” it said.