Summary:

President Donald Trump is demanding a “full throated apology” from Maine Gov. Janet Mills in his spat with the state over transgender athletes, implying his administration will continue to target the state unless he gets one.

The Democratic governor got into an argument with the president during a governors’ meeting at the White House in February, telling the president “we’ll see you in court” when he threatened to pull federal funding from the state if it failed to comply with his order to ban trans athletes from playing in women’s and girls sports.

His administration subsequently opened overlapping investigations into Maine, including probes launched by the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services and Agriculture.

The president in a Saturday morning Truth Social post demanded Mills deliver a “full throated apology” for her earlier comments and promise to never pose a “challenge” to the federal government again.

“While the State of Maine has apologized for their Governor’s strong, but totally incorrect, statement about men playing in women’s sports while at the White House House Governor’s Conference, we have not heard from the Governor herself, and she is the one that matters in such cases,” Trump wrote. “Therefore, we need a full throated apology from the Governor herself, and a statement that she will never make such an unlawful challenge to the Federal Government again, before this case can be settled.”

It was not clear what apology from the state of Maine he was referencing, or what apparent case was being settled. The White House declined to comment on the president’s post or clarify what consequences the governor and her state could face for not apologizing.