News/Commentary

Trump admin freezes funding to Maine after it refuses to follow law on trans athletes in girls’ sports

April 3, 2025 | | Print Article

As promised, President Donald Trump’s administration followed through on threats to freeze funding to Maine over banning transgender athletes from female sports.

In February, after an executive order on the issue, Trump warned Maine to comply with the protection of female athletes or face a cut in federal funding to the state. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a freeze in that funding pending Maine’s compliance with the executive order.

“In order to continue to receive taxpayer dollars from USDA, the state of Maine must demonstrate compliance with Title IX, which protects female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males,” USDA Secretary Brooks Rollins said in a letter to the state.

“In addition, USDA has launched a full review of grants awarded by the Biden Administration to the Maine Department of Education. Many of these grants appear to be wasteful, redundant, or otherwise against the priorities of the Trump Administration. USDA will not stand for the Biden Administration’s bloated bureaucracy and will instead focus on a Department that is farmer-first and without a leftist social agenda,” Rollins added.

State Rep. Laurel Libby, who called out the state’s leaders this week, brought the issue to light when she posted about a trans high school athlete who won first place at a girls’ pole vault competition in the state after previously competing as a boy.

“Governor Janet Mills and Maine Democrats have chosen to dig their heels in and embrace radical left-wing ideology over the safety and rights of Maine women and girls. Despite repeated warnings from President Trump, Maine Democrats continued to defy federal law, forcing Maine girls to unfairly compete against biological males,” Libby told Fox News Digital.

“As a result, Maine’s Democrat majority has poised Maine students to lose hundreds of millions in federal funding, starting with our USDA funding, instead of championing Maine girls by adhering to federal law. I continue to stand firmly with Maine girls and President Trump in the pursuit of sanity and fairness. I implore Maine Democrats to abandon this incredibly harmful and radical gender ideology for the sake of our students,” Libby added.

Maine’s House Democrat majority censured Libby for the post, but the lawmaker has filed a lawsuit to have it lifted.

The Department of Health and Human Services issued Maine a referral to the Department of Justice last week, and the state faces an April 11 deadline to deal with the issue from the U.S. Department of Education in a letter to the Maine Department of Education.

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Frieda Powers
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