President Trump and the Governor of Maine Governor hurled verbal jabs and threats at each other during an explosive clash over transgender athletes during a packed public event at The White House.

The verbal scuffle erupted about an hour into Mr. Trump’s remarks when he turned his attention to his recent executive order which requires athletes play on teams that coincide with the sex they were assigned at birth, noting that “the NCAA has complied immediately. He then looked out into the crowd and asked Governor Mills of Maine if she was going to comply with the order.

“Is Maine here? The Governor of Maine?” he asked before Ms. Mills made her presence known.

“Are you going to comply with it,” he asked. Ms. Mills replied by telling the President that her state would “comply with state and federal law.”

The response immediately put Mr. Trump on the defensive, declaring, “Well, we are the federal law.”

He then demanded her compliance saying, “You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t and by the way, your population, even though it’s somewhat liberal, although I did very well there … your population doesn’t want men playing in women’s sports. So you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any Federal Funding.”

The tit-for-tat quickly escalated as Ms. Mills spouted back, “I’ll see you in court.”

“Good, I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that,” Mr. Trump said in response. “That should be a real easy one.”

He then hit the governor with a verbal jab in an attempt to get the final word.

“And enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”

After the event, Ms. Mills double down on her threat of legal findings should Mr. Trump pull the plug on the state’s funding.

“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 in a released written statement. 

“The State of Maine will not be intimidated by the President’s threats.”