Trump clashed with Mills at a White House event for the National Governors Association back on February 20th.
As he boasted he was ending the participation of transitioned students in women’s sports, he singled her out and demanded that Maine comply with his order. There is only one such student athlete in the entire state.
Mills replied that Maine’s schools were complying with all State and Federal Laws.
GASP. A WOMAN. Speaking back to TRUMP. He was furious.
“Well, we are the federal law,” Trump bawled. “You’d better do it. You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”
The Governor was not impressed. She is a former state attorney general and district attorney.
“We’re going to follow the law sir. We’ll see you in court,” she said sternly.
Something like this was like nothing Trump had ever seen before in the history of the world. It was catastophic. It was disgusting. It was NASTY.
“Enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be an elected official afterwards,” Trump snarled.
He could not let go of it. He seethed for the next two days, and even golf at Mar-a-Lala could not distract him. In a late Saturday night rant on X he demanded “a full throated apology” from Mills.
She ignored him.
“This will not end well for the Governor and the people of Maine,” said a statement from the White House.
It has not.
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Trump’s Department of Education head, wrestling queen Linda McMahon, launched an “inquiry” against Maine’s Department of Education last week.
This week, The New York Times reported that Trump’s Department of Agriculture said that it had “frozen federal funding for education programs in Maine, the latest in a barrage of actions targeting the state.”
MSNBC reports that “in case that weren’t quite enough National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a letter to Maine cancelling funding for Maine Sea Grant.”
Maine Public Radio says that in recent days, both the U.S., Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education have declared that Maine is violating Title IX. The agencies have given the state 10 days to come into compliance with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the law and make other changes or risk referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for additional potential sanctions.
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But besides all of this – from the safety of his chair behind his desk – Trump ordered acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek to don the armor of Truth, Justice and the American Way and had sent HIM for a holy joust against the fearsome Dragon of Maine.
Dudek decided to take out Trump’s revenge on new parents and grieving families in Maine.
Leland asked his staff about what contracts Maine had with the Social Security Administration, and he cancelled them.
He ordered the cancellation of the online electronic program that allowed babies to be given Social Security numbers right from the hospital, and the program allowing the hospitals to register deaths by electronic verification.
Huffpost reports: According to their emails, the Social Security staff informed Dudek that canceling the contracts “would result in improper payments and potential for identity theft.”
Dudek told his staff to go for it anyway.
“Please cancel the contracts. While our improper payments will go up, and fraudsters may compromise identities, no money will go from the public trust to a petulant child,” Dudek wrote, referring to Governor Janet Mills.
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Canceling the vital records contracts would not only make it more difficult for families to register births and deaths IN PERSON at Social Security offices, it also would make it more difficult for the federal government to track births and deaths in Maine accross ALL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, all of which use Social Security records to prevent improper payments.
And all the agencies let Dudek know it.
Dudek reinstated the contracts in less than 24 hours amid an outcry the agencies, AND from pediatricians, hospitals, funeral directors and Maine’s congressional delegation. He said he hadn’t “intended” to create an “undue burden on the people of Maine,” though his internal emails expressed exactly that.
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Wednesday, those emails were obtained by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.
Rep. Connolly has called on Dudek to resign immediately.
“The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration should serve the American people, not create waste, fraud, and abuse on the taxpayer’s dime,” Connolly wrote in a letter to Dudek laying out the email traffic.
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Dudek is only a Trump appointee, and has not received any official Senate confirmation for the important post he holds.
He had been only a mid-level IT staffer at Social Security when he helped Elon Musk’s DOGE team access sensitive databases inside the agency, which he bragged about on LinkedIn. He was put on administrative leave.
But when the Social Security head resigned in protest, and more senior officials refused to cooperate with Musk’s team, Trump tapped to lead the agency as acting head.
Last month, Dudek threatened to shut the agency down altogether after a federal judge ordered DOGE affiliates to withdraw from Social Security databases containing sensitive personal information about Americans.
Dudek knows NOTHING about the contracts the federal governments has with the states. He knows NOTHING about what they mean, and he cares NOTHING about the consequences. And he cares NOTHING about making OUR information safe.
He also obviously cares NOTHING about Trump’s and Musk’s purported crusade to prevent fraud and waste in government.
So far, the Social Security Administration has not responded to calls by the news media for comment.
Neither has the White House.