The funding has since been reinstated.
The Trump admin -- after the President's public confrontation with Maine Governor Janet Mills (right) -- made headlines again when the University of Maine system announced the temporary pause of nearly thirty million dollars in federal funds from the US Department of Agriculture.
The very next day, that funding was restored, according to Susan Collins, one of Maine’s U.S. Senators.
But has the Maine problem been resolved? There are doubts.
Kaitlyn Wheeler is an ambassador for the Riley Gaines Center and, like Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer.
She credits Trump for his strong stance to protect women’s sports.
"I think it's real leadership. I think this exemplifies the type of leadership that we've been looking for for years. Female athletes have been fighting for equal opportunity, fairness, and safety in our sport. That's all we're asking for. It's the bare minimum.”
Trump has provided that, she says, “by signing an executive order declaring that there are only two sexes and signing an executive order that declares that men should not be allowed to compete in women's sports."
But now Maine’s college sports teams, who are members of the NCAA, may be allowed to hide within gray areas of a supposed updated NCAA policy regarding men in women’s sports.
"As it specifically relates to athletics, the University of Maine and all other public universities within our system that are members of the NCAA are also operating in a manner entirely consistent with that association's recently updated policies, which necessitated no changes in our system policies or practices,” Samantha Warren, Chief External and Governmental Affairs officer for the state of Maine, told The College Fix.
More to come on this one
Wheeler said she does not think this is the end of the story.
"We've seen a male pole vaulter that's currently competing as a woman in high school. So, we know that there are cases out there in the state of Maine. We've had female athletes take a stand and speak up on this. I believe that that we're going to have more female athletes soon taking a stand."
The NCAA released a statement after Trump's executive order that they would be revising their policies to comply with the order.
It turns out the NCAA’s pledged compliance was more talk than action.
"We were excited to hear that they would be finally complying with us and working with us instead of against us. But after taking a closer look at this policy, it has major, major loopholes. I mean, it still allows men to compete on women's teams. It still allows men to change in women's locker rooms.”
And it allows men intent on competing in women’s sports to skirt around the rules.
“They use language such as assigned female at birth, which we know in, in 44 of the 50 states, you can change your sex on your birth certificate. So, there's no substance to the policy whatsoever. And it does not protect women and women's sports,” Wheeler said.
The NCAA is ignoring will of the overwhelming majority of the country.
“We’ve seen the data, and it shows that 80% of our country, and I argue it's almost 90 percent of our country, believes that men do not belong in women's sports. So, we're asking these people in leadership positions, our elected officials, to be representative of the people and protect women in women's sports,” she said.
The administration’s strategy of withholding federal funds “is a great step in the right direction, and I'm very excited about hopefully the next steps and the next states that are refusing to comply, seeing action taken in those states. States like Minnesota, California, Oregon, Washington, many of these states that are refusing to comply with sanity,” Wheeler said.
