Janet Mills wouldn’t bend the knee. Instead, she kicked the ass.
The orange ass, to be specific.
When famously squaring off with President Donald Trump over education funding, Mills said she would see Trump in court. She did just that, and on Friday she won a settlement for her state, for the kids and for people everywhere who needed to see a certain asshole bully get punched right in the eye.
“I stood in the White House and when confronted by the president of the United States, I told him I’d see him in court,” Mills said, according to the Portland Press Herald. “Well we did see him in court, and we won.” More: The Portland Press Herland
Hell yeah she did.
The Press Herald reported Friday afternoon that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) agreed in a settlement that it wouldn’t “interfere with Maine school funding based on alleged Title IX violations without following the proper procedure.”
Trump has singled out Mills and Maine because they have pushed back against some of Trump’s anti-trans attacks. The president has commanded more than one federal agency to attack the state and its governor, including the Justice Department. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced an investigation into the state in February.
If any of this authoritarian shit was supposed to scare Mills, it apparently failed. Not only did she bloody some dictator lip, but she talked some trash immediately afterward.
“These bullying tactics, we will not tolerate them,” Mills said of her “victory.”
A-men. Mills and Maine have demonstrated what we resistance types all know to be true — Trump is a bully, and bullies are weak. By standing up to him, Mills has shown us the way and reminded us that we can win if we’re willing to fight. Or perhaps more accurately, we can win if we have leaders who are willing to fight.
It has been maddening watching some elected Democrats try to have it both ways with Trump, condemning him as a fascist threat to democracy and then voting for his nominees or, in some cases, even more embarrassing and confusing moves. Real opposition requires clarity and will. Mills showed both, standing up for the law and her state. We shouldn’t be afraid to fight when we are right.
According to the Press Herald, USDA had frozen money to help feed 172,000 Maine children “without any due process, without any rationale and without any Congressional basis.” How can we not oppose and fight against evil like that?
President Obama’s team used to like to say that good policy is good politics. Well a good punch can be good policy too. Especially when a bully is threatening a bunch of kids.
Will Trump go after Mills and Maine again? Probably. But the governor had the perfect response when she was asked that question: “I can’t tell what he’s going to do from one day to the next. Can you?”
No, governor, we can’t. But if we had to guess, we’d say there will be some ketchup-throwing and you will be the reason. And for that, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
So proud of our Gov Mills! She knows how to stand her ground and I love that trump is learning how to blink.
Beat him at his own game.