EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Freezes Maine’s Fed­er­al Funds Over Men In Women’s Sports

WASHINGTON—The Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture told Maine on Wednes­day that it has frozen the state’s fed­er­al fund­ing over Maine’s refusal to com­ply with Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s exec­u­tive order on men in women’s sports.

In a let­ter first obtained by The Dai­ly Wire, the USDA warned Maine, “you can­not open­ly vio­late fed­er­al law against dis­crim­i­na­tion in edu­ca­tion and expect fed­er­al fund­ing to con­tin­ue unabat­ed.”

“Your defi­ance of fed­er­al law has cost your state, which is bound by Title IX in edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram­ming,” said Agri­cul­ture Sec­re­tary Brooke Rollins. “Today, I am freez­ing Maine’s fed­er­al funds for cer­tain admin­is­tra­tive and tech­no­log­i­cal func­tions in schools. This is only the begin­ning, though you are free to end it at any time by pro­tect­ing women and girls in com­pli­ance with fed­er­al law.”

USDA is also review­ing all research and edu­ca­tion-relat­ed fund­ing in Maine to see if it is in com­pli­ance with the Con­sti­tu­tion, fed­er­al law includ­ing Titles VI and IX, and the pri­or­i­ties of Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump’s admin­is­tra­tion, the USDA said.

“In order to con­tin­ue to receive tax­pay­er dol­lars from USDA, the state of Maine must demon­strate com­pli­ance with Title IX’s pro­tec­tion of female stu­dent ath­letes from hav­ing to com­pete with or against or hav­ing to appear unclothed before males,” Rollins wrote. “USDA, along­side oth­er fed­er­al agen­cies, will con­tin­ue to pause and, where appro­pri­ate, ter­mi­nate cat­e­gories of edu­ca­tion pro­gram­ming in Maine if these Title IX vio­la­tions are not resolved to the sat­is­fac­tion of the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment.”

The pause will not impact fed­er­al feed­ing pro­grams or direct assis­tance to Main­ers, Rollins not­ed: “if a child was fed today, they will be fed tomor­row.”

“In addi­tion, USDA has launched a full review of grants award­ed by the Biden Admin­is­tra­tion to the Maine Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion,” she said. “Many of these grants appear to be waste­ful, redun­dant, or oth­er­wise against the pri­or­i­ties of the Trump Admin­is­tra­tion. USDA will not extend the Biden Administration’s bloat­ed bureau­cra­cy and will instead focus on a Depart­ment that is farmer-first and with­out a left­ist social agen­da. We look for­ward to the State’s coop­er­a­tion with all fed­er­al reviews and future com­pli­ance with fed­er­al law and pol­i­cy.”