Education officials in Maine are refusing to sign an agreement to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports.

It’s a snub to the White House’s deadline — Thursday — for the state to comply.

Protecting women’s and girl’s sports was top of Trump’s agenda for his second term.

“My administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes,” the president told a room full of female athletes in February when he signed the order in the White House’s East Room. “And we’re just not going to let it happen and it’s going to end. It’s ending right now. And nobody’s going to be able to do a damn thing about it because when I speak, we speak with authority.”

Maine Gov. Janet Mills almost immediately challenged that authority, as she said the state will operate by its own laws regarding athletic participation.

“We’ll see you in court,” Mills said during an event for governors last month.

“Good. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one,” Trump responded.

University of Maine Athletics has agreed to comply with the order, so the governor’s defiance primarily affects high school and grade school sports.

“This is about the rule of law,” Mills told Maine station WGME. “It’s about who makes the laws which is the legislature and the Congress and who enforces it and executes the laws, which is the chief executive. It’s as simple as that.”

Minnesota and California have also pushed back against the order. California scheduled a hearing on the issue for April 1, marking the first public debate since Gov. Gavin Newsom told conservative podcaster Charlie Kirk in an interview he views it as “an issue of fairness.”

“I completely agree with you that it is an issue of fairness,” Newsom said.

By not complying with Trump’s order, Maine risks losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding and faces a potential investigation by the Justice Department for possible violations of Title IX.

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