Several leftist states have openly defied President Donald Trump’s orders that men not be allowed to participate in women’s sports, including Maine.

And it may end up costing the state a lot.

Trump has announced plans to withhold federal funds from Maine because of its open rejection of the president’s mandates.

President Trump announces Maine will not receive federal funding until they comply with the executive order keeping men out of women’s sports.

Moral clarity & accountability are back in the White House. Praise God.
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— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) February 21, 2025

A report from Fox News explains Trump confirmed federal funds will be cut off if the state “continues to defy his executive order.”

The issue is the transgender ideologies and beliefs that were promoted government-wide, worldwide in fact, by Joe Biden.

Those unscientific claims said men who said they are women could be considered women on the issue of athletic competition.

In fact, following the science, men do not become women, no matter their chemical treatments or even surgical mutilations, because being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level.

“I heard men are still playing in Maine,” Trump told a gathering of Republican governors. “I hate to tell you this, but we’re not going to give them any federal money, they are still saying ‘we want men to play in women’s sports’ and I can not believe that they’re doing that… So we’re not going to give them any federal funding, none whatsoever, until they clean that up.”

Trump signed his order earlier this month instructing all federal agencies to look at grants, programs and policies that fail to comply with the administration’s efforts to end “male competitive participation in women’s sports… as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

Some governing bodies for sports have no official position regarding men claiming to be women. Others allow men to be on women’s teams.

Trump’s order said, “These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety.”

Maine, and others states like California and Minnesota, immediately announced their open defiance.

Now the chief of a major athletics governing body for high school sports in Maine said officials still will use claimed “gender identity” to determine an athlete’s participation, meaning if a boy says he is a girl, he is allowed on the girls’ teams.

Mike Burnham of the Maine Principals Association said schools will follow state law, not the president’s order.

“The executive order and our Maine state Human Rights Act are in conflict, and the Maine Principal’s Association (MPA) will continue to follow state law as it pertains to gender identity,” Burnham said, in the report.

Already, the U.S. Department of Education has begun Title IX investigations into athletic officials in Minnesota and California “for refusing to comply,” the report said.

“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day they must abide by federal law,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

The federal government is using the sledgehammer of federal civil rights laws, “that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment,” against the states.

Further, state laws do not override federal anti-discrimination laws, officials confirmed.