Maine Gov. Janet Mills emerged from seclusion on Monday to address corporate media reporters for the first time since she and her Chief of Staff Jeremy Kennedy put on a petulant and embarrassing display in Washington, DC.
Of her now-infamous tantrum in front of President Donald Trump, Mills compared the Commander-in-Chief to French “Sun” King Louis XIV.
It’s true that King Louis’ most memorable saying, “L’État, c’est moi,” or “I am the state,” is grammatically similar to how Trump reminded the governor that he is in control of the executive branch of the federal government. But the context is key. Whereas King Louis’ comment was a declaration of his despotism, Trump’s remark was pointing out that Gov. Mills was lying.
Asked whether Maine intended to follow federal law and cease its policy of forcing female athletes to compete against male athletes, Mills replied, “I’m complying with state and federal laws.”
That was, in fact, a lie. Mills and the state of Maine, more broadly, were not and are not complying with federal law.
Thanks to Trump’s Feb. 5 Executive Order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 now prohibits the policy the Mills Administration and the Maine Principal’s Association have put in place that forces female athletes to compete against males.
According to the order, “educational institutions receiving federal funds cannot deny women an equal opportunity to participate in sports.” The order further clarifies that compelling female athletes to compete against male athletes is a violation of women’s and girls’ equal opportunity to participate in interscholastic athletics.
As a means of enforcing this policy, the order states, “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
Further: “It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”
Because Trump is not ruling according to some make-believe Divine Right of Kings, but is instead implementing well-crafted executive orders that exercise the powers of the executive branch in accordance with the popular democratic will that elected him to office, this is a fight Mills will lose.
But we can hardly let her invocation of King Louis XIV pass by without noting the total lack of historical illiteracy and self-awareness she must carry in order to utter that name. For if there’s any politician in America whose tenure in office most closely resembles that of the Sun King, surely it’s Janet Mills herself.
In addition to the quip King Louis XIV may or may not have actually said, his rule was marked by high taxes on the poor, the suppression of religious freedom and political dissent, and spending policies that effectively bankrupted the nation.
Sound familiar?
When the China Virus brought the world to madness, Mills eagerly consolidated power, ruling the state via executive order and renewing her civil emergency powers 15 times. She mandated masks and vaccines—and we all know now how baseless and dangerous those decisions were. The governor even created a snitch line for her loyal followers to rat out any Mainer who wasn’t faithful enough to Her Highness’s royal edicts.
When it comes to religious suppression, Mills has waged a rabid anti-Christian war against religious institutions and religious worship. She abolished religious exemptions to vaccination mandates and then granted herself the power to suspend the First Amendment over a mild flu pandemic—an action for which she was sued by Calvary Chapel Pastor Ken Graves. At the same time, her administration has sought frantically to defund Christian schools in Maine, even despite losing a fight in the U.S. Supreme Court (Carson v. Makin). No governor in Maine’s history has been more hostile to Christianity than Mills.
Queen Mills had the same attitude toward even mild criticism of her policies. When business owner Rick Savage went on Tucker Carlson’s TV show to criticize her, he soon found his restaurant stripped of its liquor license. When Dr. Meryl Nass went on WVOM’s George Hale and Ric Tyler Show to criticize her policies, Dr. Nass soon found herself investigated by Maine’s Board of Licensure in Medicine and eventually stripped of her license to practice medicine.
Under Gov. Mills, Maine has become among the highest taxed states in the nation. On Jan. 1, she and her Democrat allies in the legislature imposed a new one percent tax on paychecks. The very same pols are currently considering yet more tax increases, including new taxes on streaming entertainment, ambulances, hospitals, and more. Mills has even proposed raising taxes on tobacco — a tax that will disproportionately be paid by the poorest Mainers.
At the same time she’s reached deeply into Mainers’ pockets, Mills has spent more money than any previous governor — with no meaningful improvements in the average lives of Mainers to show for it. In addition to record-breaking biennial budgets, Mills spent some $15 billion in Biden Bucks throughout the pandemic years. Yet still the state is underfunded and overextended, facing a $118 million current-year deficit and a “structural gap” of $450 million for FY26-27.
The similarities between Mills and King Louis XIV are striking, indeed, but there is one key difference.
On his deathbed, the King is reported to have admitted, “I have gone too far in all things.”
That’s far more humility than we’ll ever see from Maine’s 75th governor.
Steve Robinson: TheMaineWire.com
As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
Donate to the ‘Grok to keep the content coming.
