Did Maine Gov. Janet Mills tell Trump no federal taxes will be paid? No, that’s a fake quote.

After President Donald Trump and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills clashed over Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes in women’s sports, some social media users claimed Mills threatened Maine will stop paying federal taxes.

A Feb. 24 Facebook post showed photos of Trump and Mills at a Feb. 21 meeting of governors at the White House, where the exchange occurred. Below that, a quote attributed to Mills read, "If Donald Trump stops federal funding to Maine, we the people of Maine will take out federal taxes from all paychecks and no taxes will be paid to the federal government."

Other users on Facebook, Instagram and Threads also shared what looked like Mills’ supposed retort. These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

But Mills didn’t say this. Mills’ spokesperson Ben Goodman told PolitiFact the statement is "entirely false."

"Further, the action described in the false statement is illegal, per the Internal Revenue Code. The Governor respects the rule of law," Goodman said.

Although there were news reports about verbal sparring between Mills and Trump, we found no outlets reporting that Mills made this statement.

The exchange happened during Trump’s remarks welcoming a bipartisan group of governors to the White House. As Trump talked about his Feb. 5 executive order that intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, he called out Maine specifically.

"The NCAA has complied immediately, by the way, that’s good. But I understand Maine — is Maine here? The governor of Maine?" Trump asked.

"I’m here," Mills responded.

"Are you not gonna comply with it?" Trump asked.

"I’m complying with state and federal laws," Mills said.

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"We are the federal law. Well, you better do it. You better do it because you’re not gonna 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," Trump said.

"We’re going to follow the law," Mills said.

"So, you better comply because otherwise you’re not getting any federal funding," Trump said.

"See you in court," Mills said.

"Good. I’ll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one," Trump said. "And enjoy your life after governor because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics."

Mills did not say Maine would "take out federal taxes from all paychecks" and pay "no taxes" to the federal government.

We rate this claim False.