Maine is becoming the sad, sorry posterchild for “woke gone mad” – a failed attempt to govern based on belligerent concentration of power, radical opposition to Christian and Jewish traditions, free speech, due process, the constitutional right to “keep and bear arms,” and individual liberties assured by our Constitution. No state has pushed further left than Maine. The crash is coming.

So far, Maine’s one-party Democrat leadership – apparently feeling unaccountable, perhaps not really caring, or thinking Mainers may not notice – has overspent, overtaxed, let two billion dollars in questionable contracts (a recent audit shows money sluiced to friends and family), crippled law enforcement, waved in drug traffickers and illegal aliens, opposed voter ID, pushed boys in girls’ sports, subsidized what few want, what none can afford.

Now, Democrat leaders – on top of pushing new taxes – are racking up anti-Trump lawsuits, vying to be “California East,” turn Maine into “woke haven” or “watch my next crazy move.” Maine Democrats are becoming Anti-Trump Central.

Spoiler Alert: This is not how Mainers think, grew up, live, or what they want. It is political theater.

President Trump is trying – tirelessly – to renormalize government, get costs, regulations, and interest down, wages up, and imported illegal aliens, traffickers, and terrorists out. He aims to restore national security, due process, fair trade, and global respect. Frankly, the move is overdue. 

But in places like Maine, a Democrat governor and legislature are on a different path. They did not get the memo. They did not hear the message half their state delivered: People want normal, want to be left alone. Still, Maine Democrats are forcing “woke,” unsafe, reckless policies on people.

Now, they have begun using federal lawsuits – spending taxpayers’ money to attack Trump for cleaning up Washington, making life safer, more prosperous, and less about radical agendas.

Maine Democrats are staging a “one-state coup,” trying to block what Trump was elected to do. In April, Maine’s governor filed a “solo suit” against the Administration, part of a wider band of suits intended to continue discriminating against biological girls – pushing “transgender boys” – saying Maine allows this discrimination, overriding 50 years of Title IX Supreme Court precedent.

Of course that is bunk. The premise is legally flawed, will be ruled unconstitutional, a willful misinterpretation of law, morally and biologically wrong. It will not stand, but Maine’s Democrats are likely to get a reprieve, since funding cuts were swift. Victims of the charade? Maine citizens.

The Democrats huff about the Executive Order declaring boys are not girls, but that is also federal law, has been for the history of the country, and was affirmed in January, in Tennessee v. Cardona.

Maine’s Democrats are also challenging Trump’s attempts to get illegal aliens, drug traffickers, gang members, and foreign terrorists out of Maine, and they continue to give benefits to these same illegals, encourage them to come, and provide them with housing and credit cards. Victims? Maine citizens.

Maine also joined a lawsuit trying to allow pregnant illegals to have children, then claim citizenship based on the child’s birth in the country. That one is New Jersey versus Trump.

Another Maine Democrat suit against Trump tries to block Trump’s access to Treasury documents that would confirm trillions in waste, fraud, and abuse. That suit is New York v. Trump.

Another suit pushed by Maine tries to stop Trump’s downsizing – and Congress’ closure – of the Education Department, 4,200 bureaucrats who have done nothing to improve US education outcomes, and are heavy handed with states. That one is US v. McMahon.

Maine’s other anti-Trump suits just want to keep “woke” alive. They include New York v. Department of Education (seeking to claw back unspent COVID monies), California v. Trump (seeking to keep IDs out of elections), New York v. Trump (to keep federal overhead payments coming for research institutions), Massachusetts v. NIH (challenging overhead cuts), California v. Citibank (seeking to keep money coming for wind and solar, under investigation), Colorado v. HHS (trying to reclaim money canceled on the merits), and Rhode Island v. Trump (seeking to reinstate money for minority initiatives, federal support local initiatives like libraries).

At the end of the day, big ships always turn slowly. Inertia, that force which resists change, is powerful. Race discrimination in the 1950s died hard, as the federal government pushed to end it. Civil Rights violations against biological girls were resisted in the 1970s, but eventually ended.

Today, Maine is the poster child for truly bad, unconstitutional, unaccountable behavior, as angry Democrats throw their last tantrum against overwhelming national, legal, scientific, and moral force for normal. They will lose at the Supreme Court. Until then, welcome to “woke gone mad.”

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).