The Trump Administration Keeps Finding Petty New Ways to Punish the State of Maine

(Permanent Musical Accompaniment To This Post)

Being our semi-regular weekly survey of what's goin' down in the several states where, as we know, the real work of governmentin' gets done, and where a cold coyote howls.

We begin in Maine, which has a governor named Janet Mills, and Governor Mills made it a point a while back to jump up and down on the president's last nerve. The president has reacted as the national leader we have come to know. From The Washington Post:

Mills was “disrespectful” and “unprofessional” during an event with President Donald Trump, wrote Leland Dudek in a Feb. 27 email viewed by The Washington Post. While canceling the contracts meant that “improper payments will go up,” Dudek wrote, it would also deny federal funds to a “petulant child.”

The move to cut a key service for new parents and a system that allows quick reporting of deaths — later reversed — was one of a series of measures targeting Maine taken by federal agencies following a brief but pointed exchange between Trump and Mills during a National Governors Association event at the White House on Feb. 21. At the gathering, Trump demanded that Maine comply with his executive order banning transgender athletes from women’s sports. Mills replied that Maine would follow state and federal law. Trump threatened to cut off all funding to the state. “See you in court,” Mills responded.

Mills was standing up for her constituents and for Maine's anti-discrimination statutes against the administration's absurd attacks on trans citizens, particularly high school athletes. Dudek is the interim director of the Social Security Administration, which makes him the perfect vehicle for petty presidential vendettas. Which pretty much occupies most of the administration's time.

Since that one-minute interaction, the small New England state has been subjected to unusual, overlapping investigations and arbitrary reversals of funding, turning it into a test case for the Trump administration’s approach to perceived adversaries. Officials in Maine have spent weeks in a state of “whiplash and worry,” in the words of one educator, hit with probes that are unlike anything experts say they have seen.

There has been a concerted effort to turn the vengeance off, which largely has been successful, thanks to Maine's U.S, Senator, Susan Collins, she of the deeply furrowed brow. But the president's lizard brain never sleeps.

Other apparent consequences for the state have left officials bewildered. A week after Trump and Mills faced off, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sent a letter saying that funding for Maine Sea Grant, a 54-year-old marine research and education program, was being canceled because it “was no longer relevant” to the government’s “priorities and program objectives.”

Maine Sea Grant is one of 34 such programs around the country; none of the others were terminated. The letter ending the $4.5 million grant was sent as hundreds of people were gathered at a hotel in Rockport for the annual Fishermen’s Forum conference.

I'm not sure why any officials should be "bewildered." The governor harshed the president's mellow in public. Unless one is a former KGB operative with his own nuclear arsenal and a fondness for upper-floor windows, you don't get to do that. Time for Maine to strike back. Complete lobster boycott of all Trump properties. Let 'em eat whitefish.

We move along to Utah, where the state legislature recently was granted a singular honor by the Society of Professional Journalists, which declared it to be the least transparent such body in the country. Utah Proud!

Among the most egregious examples: In 2022, the Legislature voted to prevent the release of Garrity statements, which are compelled statements from public employees during internal investigations. This move followed a request from The Salt Lake Tribune for records related to a fatal officer-involved shooting.

In 2023, lawmakers passed a law shielding officials’ digital calendars from public view. This came after journalists sought access to Attorney General Sean Reyes’ calendar amid scrutiny of his connections to Tim Ballard, the controversial former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad. Even when courts ordered the calendar’s release, a new law blocked access.

In 2025, the Legislature passed SB277, a law proposing to replace the independent State Records Committee with a single administrative law judge appointed by the governor. Despite public outcry, the measure threatens to concentrate authority over public records decisions, further reducing accountability.

The Legislature also passed HB69, which prevents citizens from recovering attorney fees when challenging the government for public records, without public hearings or input. Together with SB277, this makes it harder for individuals and organizations with limited resources to access withheld records.

That's breaking a lot of rock to prevent your constituents from finding out what's really going on. I mean, Louisiana, I can buy. Maryland, Illinois, absolutely. Even the Commonwealth (God save it!) But, Utah? My disillusionment is endless.

We move on to Delaware, which is having a severe dead whale problem these days. From the News-Journal:

"The boat was not large enough to be able to handle that kind of weight," said Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Executive Director Suzanne Thurman. "The challenge is that it's so shallow in the bays, so the size boat that's needed can't get back there. We're back to the drawing board." It's the third dead whale to wash up on Delaware shores this year. A juvenile humpback beached itself and died just north of the Indian River Inlet, in Delaware Seashore State Park on Thursday, March 13. Around Feb. 28, a dead juvenile fin whale washed up in the mud at Pigeon Point, just north of the Delaware Memorial Bridge in New Castle County.

The story includes a hot line for people who see deceased sea life in and around Delaware. I am currently contemplating an associated hotline to solicit cheap wisecracks about the current Secretary of Health and Human Services.

And we conclude, as is our custom, in the great state of Oklahoma, whence Blog Consul General to Portugal Friedman of the Plains brings us the Further Adventures of Ryan Walters, Busybody of the Lord:

“Oklahoma will never be bullied by radical, out-of-state atheists who use intimidation and harassment against kids,” said Walters. “The Freedom From Religion Foundation has no stake in our schools, no authority over our communities, and absolutely no right to trample on the First Amendment. Their threats are nothing more than a desperate attempt to erase faith from public life, and we will fight them at every turn.”

The lawsuit was prompted by the FFRF's having sent a cease-and-desist letter in regards to how the Achille Public Schools allowed a student to pray over the intercom.

A mighty deposition is our Lord.

This is your democracy, America. Cherish it.