A viral image claims that Maine Gov. Janet Mills told Donald Trump that she would refuse to collect federal taxes if the White House cut funding to the state. “If Donald Trump stops federal funding to Maine, we the people of Maine will take out federal taxes from all paychecks and no taxes will be paid to the federal government,” Mills supposedly said. The quote has been shared widely online, including by prominent political scientist Allan Lichtman.
The quote is fabricated: Mills made no such statement.
No evidence exists for the statement on Mills’ social media, in online searches, or in the Maine government’s official press statements, and Mills’ office denies the quote’s legitimacy. “The statement is entirely false,” Ben Goodman, press secretary for Mills, told The Dispatch Fact Check. “Further, the action described in the false statement is illegal, per the Internal Revenue Code. The governor respects the rule of law.”
While Mills, a Democrat serving her second term as governor, has not threatened to withhold taxes from the federal government, she has been highly critical of the Trump administration. Last week, Trump and Mills clashed during a meeting of governors over the White House’s push to restrict transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports. Trump, who signed an executive order in early February rescinding funds from educational programs that do not follow the White House’s guidance, called Mills out during the meeting after Maine officials said that transgender athletes would not be discriminated against in the state. “You better do it,” Trump told Mills during the meeting. “Because you’re not getting any federal funding if you don’t.”
In a February 21 statement, Mills wrote that Trump’s threats would not be tolerated by the state. “If the President attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my Administration and the Attorney General will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides,” she said. “The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”
The same day, she released another statement in response to the Department of Education notifying the state that it’s being investigated for alleged Title IX violations. In it, she attacked Trump for targeting Maine and said that her administration would “defend the interests of Maine people in the court of law.” “No President – Republican or Democrat – can withhold Federal funding authorized and appropriated by Congress and paid for by Maine taxpayers in an attempt to coerce someone into compliance with his will. It is a violation of our Constitution and of our laws, which I took an oath to uphold,” the statement reads.
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