Trump Misgenders Maine Governor Janet Mills, Sparks Response: ‘He Better Get Used to Recognizing Women’

During a call with supporters in Maine, former President Donald Trump repeatedly misgendered Governor Janet Mills, referring to her as “he” while criticizing her immigration policies. According to The Bangor Daily News, which obtained the audio, Trump used the incorrect pronoun six times as he took aim at Mills for her stance on immigration.

Mills, Maine’s first female governor and the 75th person to hold the office since 2019, was quick to respond. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she shot back, “He better get used to recognizing women. He’s about to get beat by one,” referencing Trump’s Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. Mills, who previously served as Maine’s Attorney General, highlighted her experience in standing up to Trump’s policies.

On October 7, Trump spoke to his supporters in an effort to rally them for the upcoming election while accusing Mills of transforming Maine into a “third world” country. He claimed that Mills had resettled “75,000 migrants” in the state under the Biden administration’s orders. “He’s weak and ineffective, and they told him to do so, and he’s saying, ‘Yes, sir. Yes, ma’am. I will do it,’” Trump stated, incorrectly using the masculine pronoun when referring to Mills.

In another instance, Trump continued his mischaracterization, saying, “Kamala’s turning your state into a dumping ground because they have a governor that’ll do whatever they say, and that’s the next thing—you’d better get rid of him someday in the near future—and if she wins, Maine’s unique character will be lost forever.” His remarks, aimed at undermining Mills, only drew more attention to his repeated error.

Immigration remains a central issue in the 2024 election, with both sides trying to mobilize their voter base. Right-wing critics often target Harris, accusing her of allowing illegal border crossings. Trump, in contrast, has detailed his plans to locate and detain undocumented migrants if re-elected. His attacks on Mills may be an attempt to capitalize on the issue, but his missteps did not go unnoticed.

Critics speculated that Trump’s animosity toward Mills could stem from her support for Harris, with whom she shares a background in prosecution. Mills has openly praised Harris’s performance during the first presidential debate against Trump, highlighting her experience as a prosecutor. “She’s [Kamala] always been a person for the people,” Mills told Maine Morning Star.

“She’s shown that in her career as vice president, as attorney general, as a former district attorney, and now at this debate. The attorney general is the attorney for the people of the state. She worked with me and other attorneys general, in a bipartisan fashion very often, to achieve settlements and go after wrongdoers who were harming the people of our states.”

Mills also condemned Trump’s false claims about Haitian immigrants, dismissing his assertion that they were “eating local pets like cats and ducks” as “crazy talk” from a man she argued “shouldn’t be president.”