People protested across Maine this weekend amid mounting conflict between the White House and Augusta, leading to heated clashes over beliefs at the State House and wide shows of political activism.

Demonstrations against the Trump administration’s policies were planned across Maine on Saturday and Sunday in an effort promoted as “16 Counties for Courage.”

Meanwhile, protesters calling for Gov. Janet Mills’ removal from office — following heated exchanges between President Donald Trump and Mills over transgender athletes in women’s and girls sports — clashed with anti-Trump protesters Saturday at the “March Against Mills” protest at the State House in Augusta, yelling at each other from opposite sides of Capitol Street under heavy police supervision.

One of those clashes left counterprotester Doug Emerson sprawled in the street after being shoved to the ground. Emerson, wearing a pink fur coat that he dons every day to promote conversations about inclusivity, said he was returning to the sidewalk by the State House when an anti-Mills protester pushed him over.

“I grabbed another one of my signs and was walking across. He said, ‘You can’t be here — this is our side. You’re crossing the line,'” Emerson said. “I was coming back over and he pushed me from the sidewalk onto the street.”

Maine State Police officers took down both names and recorded the incident. Emerson, who said he plans to file a complaint, went on protesting even louder — his pink coat splattered with mud and dirt.

Tensions ran high among the protesters, and other verbal altercations broke out on either side of the street, with clear animosity on both sides.

Hundreds of people attended the protest, brandishing signs that said “impeach Mills,” “save girl’s sports” and one sign that announced “let’s hear it 4 the girls,” but specified in parenthesis, “girls at birth.”

An hour later, at a protest in Portland, signs expressed a similar level of frustration, but directed toward Trump and adviser Elon Musk — from “No one voted for Musk” to “No Musk-rats.”

Roughly 400 protesters took to Monument Square on Saturday afternoon in an “end the madness of Trump” demonstration, criticizing Trump and Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency — the office responsible for eliminating what the Trump administration has deemed wasteful government spending.

The 1 p.m. protest was organized by local groups including Indivisible Cumberland County and Pax Christi Maine. Organizer Lisa Joy of the Indivisible Cumberland County action team said the demonstration focused on four points: checks and balances, the rule of law, equity, and privacy and security.

“We want our Congress to do their job and restore some of those checks and balances, make some noise about the rule of law, make some noise about the equity that’s going away and the privacy and security that’s being taken away from our data in the federal system,” Joy said.

There did not appear to be any counterprotesters or violence at the Portland protest.

House Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Katrina J. Smith, R-Palermo, speaks during the March Against Mills event on Saturday at the Maine State House in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The Augusta protest kicked off at 10 a.m. with a speech from Julia Deitrick, a junior at Lincoln Academy in Newcastle and competitive figure skater who said she supports women’s sports.

“I really hope to see women’s athletics stay for women,” Deitrick said. “I have always thought that women deserve the same opportunities in sports as men, and I think that it is incredibly important that in the state of Maine, we show our support for women and we show that we value their voices.”

The Saturday protests follow a slew of federal investigations into whether Maine is allowing transgender athletes to compete in violation of the federal Title IX law, which expands opportunities for women in sports.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the state education department and the Cumberland-North Yarmouth school district. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the University of Maine.

In addition, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday threatened to sue Maine if Mills refuses to comply with Trump’s executive order calling for a nationwide ban on transgender student-athletes.

Mills and Trump clashed over the executive order during an event with other governors at the White House last week.

When Trump asked Mills if she planned to comply with his executive order, Mills said she’d follow federal and state law, the latter of which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, prompting Trump to argue “we are the federal law.”

“You’d better do it,” Trump said. “You’d better do it, because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t.”

“See you in court,” Mills replied.

Deitrick said she decided to speak out because of the altercation between Mills and Trump.

“When President Trump released the executive order, I was very much in support of it and I paid attention to that entire process,” Deitrick said. “And then when Governor Mills released her opinions and the MPA released their stance on this issue, is really when I decided to take a stance.”

The Maine Principals’ Association said last month that it would continue letting transgender athletes compete in women’s sports despite the executive order.

Dozens of people line Longley Bridge in Auburn on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump’s agenda. The community action groups Indivisible and Resist Maine put the event together while other protests were also scheduled throughout Maine this weekend. Marla Hoffman/Sun Journal

At an RSU 5 school board meeting last week, Deitrick gave a speech about a transgender athlete’s win in a women’s sporting event. She said that transgender athlete took an opportunity from a team that “rightfully earned its place in competition.”

Forrest Young, an anti-Mills protester from Midcoast Maine, said he attended the protest to fight for his daughter, who was an athlete in high school for two years before the pandemic brought an end to her sports experience. He said that losing out on athletics can change the course of someone’s life.

“I get emotional thinking: You only get one chance in high school, and if you have the wrong set of adults, the rest of your life can be disturbed,” Young said. “And that’s what’s happening here: If you need that first place to go to college, if you need that for the scholarship, and some dude gets it.”

Emerson, a gay man who has advocated for human rights since the ’80s, said that going after transgender high school athletes is a political cop-out.

“Now, it’s such a low-hanging fruit for these people: Transgender girls in high school sports,” Emerson said. “It’s such an easy, low-hanging fruit. I mean, that’s what helped (Trump) win his election, and it’s a hard issue for all of us on this side to counter, because there’s so little education on the actual issue.

Portland protesters focused on Trump’s other actions in office. Many criticized Musk’s DOGE for cutting federal jobs and programs and attempting to access sensitive federal data.

“We didn’t vote for Musk … Trump is installing a tyranny, and we need to make sure this doesn’t happen,” said protester Luke Davidson, of Freeport.

Joy, one of the organizers, said her group will continue to put pressure on lawmakers, especially Sen. Susan Collins, through letter-writing campaigns and monthly protests.

“We are the leaders we have been waiting for,” Joy said. “We are the foot soldiers to save the democracy.”

Many were inspired to attend the Portland demonstration following an Oval Office meeting between Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, in which Trump and Vance berated Zelensky during a conversation about diplomacy with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the future of U.S. support to Ukraine.

Davidson, of Freeport, said that Trump and Vance’s treatment of Zelensky was what “got him off the couch” to attend his first-ever protest on Saturday.

“It’s been bothering me for a while, but seeing the mistreatment of a sovereign state, and a country that’s working as hard as they are to save basically democracy in Europe, to be treated in such a way was enough to finally push me over the edge,” Davidson said.

Ann Kennedy and daughter Jennifer Kennedy were also energized by Trump and Vance’s comments on Ukraine, which they described as “beyond disgraceful.” The Kennedys, of Gorham, held up Ukrainian flags at the Monument Square protest as cars passing by beeped their horns in support.

“It’s just standing up for democracy, standing up for our values in the world,” Ann Kennedy said.

Jennifer Kennedy said she calls her representatives every day to voice her support for Ukraine and other issues like equal rights for transgender people.

“We have friends and family who are trans, and we will always fight for their lives and their rights,” Jennifer Kennedy said. “With everything that’s going on, we have to stand together.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to clarify that Julia Deitrick supports women’s sports.