President Donald Trump last week threatened to withhold federal funds from the state of Maine if Governor Janet Mills didn’t comply with his executive order to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports. When Trump repeated to Mills, “You better do it,” the Democratic governor replied, “See you in court.”
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova, a loud critic of Trump on social media, responded to the exchange: “I do not agree with the governor of Maine[‘s] policy but trump has no business threatening her like that. Also trump is an adjudicated rapist so not exactly a defender of women- he just hates all trans people. Other than his bootlicker Jenner.”
Note: Navratilova is presumably referring to Caitlyn Jenner, the retired Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete (formerly known as Bruce Jenner), who is a staunch supporter of Trump and his executive order to keep transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.
ABC just had to pay Trump $15m for saying exactly this. This is defamation, plain and simple, and Trump should sue you into oblivion. Cc: @realDonaldTrump @DonaldJTrumpJr https://t.co/20WxCdwuad
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) February 23, 2025
Former Fox News star Megyn Kelly replied to Navratilova: “ABC just had to pay Trump $15m for saying exactly this. This is defamation, plain and simple, and Trump should sue you into oblivion.”
In December, ABC News agreed to pay $15 million toward Trump’s yet-to-be-built presidential library “to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.”
Kelly wrote of Navratilova: “She’s so nasty to anyone right of center and has severe TDS but thinks she’s fair and balanced bc she (eventually) saw the light on the gender madness. Well it’s been a long time since she’s won any trophies and I don’t think she wants to pay Trump $15 million.”
The former World No. 1 female tennis player replied, “Wow. So nice of you to go this route…”
Wow. So nice of you to go this route…
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) February 24, 2025