Henry Abbott

At the National Governors Association winter summit, President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Maine after Governor Janet Mills spoke out against Trump’s executive order banning transgender women and girls from competing in sports.

“We’re going to follow the law sir. We’ll see you in court,” Mills told the president.

Mills’ statement refers to the Maine Human Rights Act, which was amended in 2021 to protect individuals from discrimination based on gender identity, including in all Maine public schools.

Shortly after the summit, the Maine Department of Education received a notice from the U.S. Department of Education that the state will be required to undergo an investigation over alleged Title IX violations. In response, Mills released a public statement defending “the rule of law in our country.”

“No President—Republican or Democrat—can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold,” Mills said.

Professor of Government Andrew Rudalevige, whose research specializes in the American presidency, provided his interpretation of the legality of President Trump’s actions.

“The president has decreed that the correct interpretation of Title IX is to forbid trans people from playing high school sports, or any sports for that matter,” Rudalevige said in an interview with the Orient. “His interpretation doesn’t have any special relevance other than that…. It shouldn’t get any special claim simply because the president said it loudly and put it in an executive order.”

On March 17, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights claimed that the Maine Principals’ Association and Greely High School, in Cumberland, were both in violation of Title IX for allowing transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports. Three days later, Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education Pender Makin received a letter giving the state ten days to comply with the executive order that bans transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

The local impacts of these policies and funding requirements remain in flux as the situation evolves rapidly. Brunswick School Board Chair Beth Bisson commented that the board is actively monitoring federal and state-level policy changes and will evaluate how to proceed if new policies arise.

“The current discourse around education funding and policy approaches in Maine and across the county is highly dynamic, and it remains very uncertain how any federal-level changes will be felt here in Maine, or within any local school district,” Bisson wrote in an email to the Orient. “In the meantime, we will continue to carry out our oath of office, which is to uphold relevant state and federal laws, with which our current Brunswick School Board policies are aligned.”

Brunswick Town Council Member Sande Updegraph similarly expressed uncertainty around the potential impact of the executive orders on Brunswick but explained that the town does not currently receive any federal funding.

“We don’t know yet if or what any impact is going to come from the new administration. In terms of budgeting for the town, it’s kind of business as usual,” Updegraph said.

However, Updegraph pointed to one area where Brunswick may request federal assistance. In August, a fire extinguishment system at the Brunswick Executive Airport (BXM) released 1,450 gallons of aqueous film-forming foam into the surrounding environment, requiring the town of Brunswick to heavily invest in cleanup efforts. Efforts to clear the spilled foam by the end of the calendar year have included requests for federal funding.

New executive director of the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority (MRRA) Daniel Stevenson explained that the MRRA applied for congressionally directed spending from the federal government to supplement town funds. However, proposals submitted for 2025 were all recently cut by the funding committee, requiring the committee to reapply for 2026 funding and delaying the cleanup.

“I don’t have the $1.1 million just to go clean the systems…. We’re just going to continue to apply for any resources over the coming months that we can identify. In the meantime, [we’ll be] using some funds that we have to try to get that done,” Stevenson said.

While Stevenson remains optimistic about potential sources of funding, he acknowledged the limited resources available at this time.

“There’s just so much uncertainty right now at the federal level [on] what is going to be available for federal funding over the coming weeks and months,” Stevenson said.

In the midst of unpredictable political tides, the Trump administration has explicitly threatened programs such as the Maine Sea Grant and other funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides $63 million dollars in funding to the University of Maine System. While this funding was renegotiated by Senator Susan Collins, Rudalevige said that these retaliatory pressures still have large impacts.

“The Trump administration is trying to use levers of funding to pressure all kinds of entities—states, localities, universities, law firms—into doing what he’s decided he wants them to do. In a lot of cases, the authority claimed by the administration is not really there in the law,” Rudalevige said. “And, of course, you’re seeing waves of court cases pushing back against some of these things, but at the very least, there’s a lot of temporary disruption going on.”

Rudalevige also discussed recent disruption to the Social Security system, which has already impacted many in Maine, the oldest state in the country, by the Trump administration shutting down field offices, firing staff and threatening to disrupt payments. Many elderly citizens also rely on Medicaid, which proposed budget cuts under Trump will likely target.

“I think [even] a lot of areas where the administration is least threatening has some pretty direct harm to Maine residents, and of course, to specific Maine entities,” Rudalevige said.

Mills highlighted in her public statement that the implications for these investigations reach beyond Maine’s borders, as other states may soon fall victim as well if she doesn’t fight back.

“Maine may be one of the first states to undergo an investigation by his administration, but we won’t be the last,” Mills said.