America’s Toughest Governor, Maine’s Janet Mills, Just Folded Like A Cheap Lawn Chair

You remember the story, right? All of the nation’s governors were at the White House for a meeting with Donald Trump on February 22nd, and Maine’s Janet Mills stole the show, as it were. 

Trump, a couple weeks earlier, had signed an executive order to ban biological males from competing in women’s sports, and threatened to pull education funding to districts, states, and colleges/universities that did not comply. Enter Governor Mills.

She had no intention of complying. Even after the President called her out in front of other other state’s governor, she wasn’t going to budge. This was the hill on which she was willing to consume the arsenic. I wrote about this pretty extensively at the end of the week, including the immediate Finding Out Governor Mills experienced after F’ing Around. 

Her reaction? Priceless. She said her antiquated state law trumped Trump’s EO and Title IX of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Trump said he’d see her in court, and that she’d lose. 

Maine Governor Janet Mills decided that women’s sports was the hill she wanted to die on. She refused to comply with Trumps EO and told him she would see him in court.

Several hours later, the Office of Civil Rights announced they were investigating Maine for Title IX… pic.twitter.com/G8cPARuZpF

— Sassafrass84 (@Sassafrass_84) February 22, 2025

Multiple investigations by the Department of Education and Department of Agriculture, a menacing follow-up from Pam Bondi’s Department of Justice, along with an announcement that up to $250 million dollars in educational dollars, seemed to have done the trick. Mills, and University of Maine, discovered that that much money not finding its way to the Pinetree State unless compliance happens would cause some consternation among Mainers with kids. The Department of Agriculture alone allots up to $100 million to the University of Maine System of campuses alone. 

Today is the 21st. Mills drew her line in the sand 27 days ago. You’ll be surprised to learn that Maine, and Mills, caved. It didn’t even make it to court. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that the University of Maine System (UMS) has agreed to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports. 

UMS, a network of eight public universities in Maine, was subject to a temporary pause in funding from the USDA last week during an ongoing battle between the state and the federal government over trans inclusion in women’s and girls sports. The funding was reinstated just days later. 

The USDA now claims the UMS is in full compliance with Trump’s executive order.

Oh, sure, you can sell me on the concept that Mills, in her heart of hearts, is still a believer in boys collecting up all the records and medals in women’s sports in the name of equality. You know what she believes in a hell of a lot more? That sweet, sweet federal cash. 

Now don’t get me wrong. Maine is still a pretty freaky deaky place. Get a load of who gave the opening prayer to the state legislature this week. 

This young man, presenting himself as the woman he biologically isn’t, offered a prayer. We have no idea to whom the prayer was being offered, because the recipient of the prayer was not identified. It was just a prayer to whoever might be listening. 

Spiritual leader Quinn Gormley, wearing the white collar apparently in order to highlight the location of his Adam’s Apple, also talked of a grand design. We have no idea from this prayer whom the designer of the design might be, or what actually has been written about that design, presuming that the collar indicates some passing familiarity with the Christian faith. 

The Maine legislature is still treating Laurel Libby, the duly-elected state representative who got this whole controversy between Mills and Trump started, the way Recep Erdogan treats competitors in Turkey. 

To be certain, Maine still has a long way to go to align itself with opinions shared by 80% of the country. But this is a very good development. Not only did Trump win, again, but women athletes at all academic levels are now free to compete fairly again.