The president made the request on social media at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, insisting on a “full throated apology from the governor herself.”
AUGUSTA, Maine — In a Saturday morning social media post, President Donald Trump called for Maine Gov. Janet Mills to apologize amid a disagreement regarding an executive order that prohibits transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
The president’s demand appeared on Truth Social around 7:30 a.m., where he did not mention Mills by name, referring to her only as the governor of Maine. The post included several unverified assertions about how the state responded to the Trump administration in relation to the executive order and the previous verbal exchange between Mills and Trump a month earlier.
Hours after their February meeting at the White House, federal authorities initiated multiple investigations to ascertain whether the state had infringed upon Title IX laws or other federal regulations. The president promised to halt federal funding to state institutions for any confirmed violations and has enacted this promise in several instances.
“We have not received any word from the Governor herself, who is the key figure in these matters,” the post reads. “Thus, we require a full throated apology from the Governor herself, along with a commitment never to challenge the Federal Government unlawfully again, before this case can be resolved. I’m confident she can manage that quite easily.”
Mills made a statement on the evening of their White House interaction, following notifications to state officials regarding the initiation of several investigations by federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Throughout my career – as a District Attorney, as Attorney General, and now as Governor – I have defended the rule of law in Maine and America. This, to me, is what fundamentally matters: the rule of law in our country,” Mills expressed in her statement. “No President – whether Republican or Democrat – can withhold federal funding approved and funded by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers to force compliance with his will. This action violates our Constitution and laws, which I have sworn to uphold.”
In his Truth Social post on Saturday, the president also asserted that the “State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, yet entirely incorrect, statement about men competing in women’s sports during the time at the White House,” but the specifics and origins of the purported apology remained unclear, with no further details provided.
NEWS CENTER Maine reached out to the governor’s office for comment and to confirm multiple statements made in the president’s social media post but has yet to receive a response.
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