President Donald Trump steps off Air Force One early Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, after returning from a trip to Florida.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
hide title
toggle title
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
WASHINGTON – An annual meeting of the nation’s governors that has long served as a rare bipartisan gathering is falling apart after President Donald Trump excluded Democratic governors from White House events.
The National Governors Association said it will no longer hold a formal meeting with Trump when governors meet in Washington later this month, after the White House planned to invite only Republican governors. On Tuesday, 18 Democratic governors also announced they would boycott a traditional White House dinner.
“If reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not attend the White House dinner this year,” the Democrats wrote. “Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and improve the lives of people in our states.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who chairs the NGA, told fellow governors in a letter Monday that the White House intended to limit invitations to the association’s annual business meeting, scheduled for Feb. 20, to Republican governors only.
“Because the NGA’s mission is to represent all 55 governors, the Association no longer acts as a facilitator of that event and is no longer included in our official program,” Stitt wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The governors’ group, which will meet Feb. 19-21, is one of the few remaining places where political leaders from both major parties meet to discuss the major issues facing their communities. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump has “discretion to invite whoever he wants to the White House.”
“It’s the people’s house,” he said. “It’s also the president’s home, so he can invite whoever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House.”
Representatives for Sitt and the NGA did not comment on the letter. Brandon Tatum, executive director of the NGA, said in a statement last week that the White House gathering is an “important tradition” and said the organization was “disappointed by the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”
In his letter to other governors, Stitt encouraged the group to unite around common goals.
“We cannot allow a divisive action to achieve its goal of dividing us,” he wrote. “The solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise up and remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve. America’s governors have always been models of pragmatic leadership, and that example is most important when Washington becomes distracted by politics.”
Signs of partisan tensions emerged at last year’s White House meeting, when Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills traded barbs.
Trump singled out the Democratic governor for her push to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports, threatening to withhold federal funds from the state if she didn’t comply. Mills responded, “See you in court.”
Trump later predicted that Mills’ political career would end by opposing the order. He is now running for the United States Senate.
The back-and-forth had a lasting impact on last year’s conference, and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues to the bipartisan group last year.