Trump admin freezes funding to Maine over state's refusal to ban transgender women from sports

WASHINGTON, DC: The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) just hit the brakes on federal funding to Maine, launching a review after the state refused to follow Donald Trump’s executive order banning trans athletes from competing in girls' and women’s sports.

Maine’s defiance of Trump’s directive has led to the US President making good on his promise to crack down on states that don’t comply.

Donald Trump’s warning turns into action

On February 20, Trump made it crystal clear that any state refusing to enforce his executive order on trans athletes would face serious financial consequences. Maine, however, stood its ground—leading to the USDA’s decision to freeze funding, Fox News reported.

USDA Secretary Brooks Rollins laid it all out in a letter to the state.

"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," Rollins wrote.

"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," she added.

Controversy that set it all off

Maine GOP state Rep Laurel Libby—a vocal critic of the state's trans athlete policy—raised eyebrows when she posted about a transgender track and field athlete at Greely High School. She revealed that this student had competed as a boy just a year earlier—only to dominate the girls' pole vault competition the next year.

Her post sparked fierce debates over fairness in female sports. But the backlash wasn’t just from social media—Maine’s Democrat-led House censured Libby for identifying a minor, a move she immediately fought back against by filing a lawsuit to overturn the censure.

Libby blasted Maine’s Democratic leadership for what she called a reckless and harmful stance.

"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," she told Fox News on Wednesday. 

"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.

Looming legal action

The USDA’s funding freeze might just be the beginning. The US Department of Education has already issued a final warning to the Maine Department of Education that they either fix this by April 11 or get referred to the DOJ.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services has already sent Maine’s case to the DOJ, meaning legal action could be coming soon.

This isn’t the first time Maine has faced a federal funding freeze over this issue. Last month, the USDA paused funding to the University of Maine System (UMS) while investigating its Title IX compliance. That situation was resolved quickly, and funding resumed, but the latest controversy is centered around high school sports.

One of the most vocal voices in this battle is Maine teen Cassidy Carlisle, who has firsthand experience competing against trans athletes. She told Fox News about her frustration after being forced to share a locker room with a trans student in middle school and later having to race against one in Nordic skiing.

"The defeat that comes with that in that moment is heartbreaking," Carlisle said. "I'm just in shock in a way. I didn't believe it. I didn't think it was happening to me."

"I stayed silent for a while," she added. "It's very hard to speak up if you don't have a platform to do it on. Backlash is a huge thing. I'm a high school student. No high school student wants to be hurt or yelled at or said mean comments by people. And the reality of it, with the state that I live in, that could very much happen." 

What do Maine voters think?

Maine’s leadership may be standing firm on trans inclusion, but voters seem to disagree.

A recent survey by the American Parents Coalition found that 63% of registered voters believe school sports should be based on biological sex. Meanwhile, 66% say it’s "only fair to restrict women’s sports to biological women."

And 60% support a ballot measure limiting girls’ and women’s sports to biological females—including 64% of independents and 66% of parents with kids under 18.