The president is avoiding his top critics by not inviting them to a traditionally bipartisan event.
During the National Governors Association meeting later this month, President Donald Trump, 79, will only convene with Republican governors, state leaders learned on Friday. The move breaks from decades of meetings between the president and governors across the aisle. It also undermines the NGA’s stated goal of bipartisanship.
The NGA meeting is scheduled for the weekend of Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. The change in invite list comes after a series of public sparring matches with Democratic governors, including California’s Gavin Newsom and Minnesota’s Tim Walz.
Brandon Tatum, acting Executive Director and CEO of the NGA, said that the organization was “disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”
“To disinvite individual governors to the White House sessions undermines an important opportunity for federal-state collaboration,” Tatum said in a statement to The Daily Beast.
“At this moment in our nation’s history, it is critical that institutions continue to stand for unity, dignity, and constructive engagement,” Tatum continued. “NGA will remain focused on serving all governors as they deliver solutions and model leadership for the American people. Traditionally the White House has played a role in fostering these moments during NGA’s annual meeting. This year, they will not.”
An email obtained by Politico, sent by the NGA on Friday, revealed that the White House meeting will no longer be an association event. “No NGA resources will be used to support transportation for this activity,” the email said.
The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
Trump’s decision to shut out Democrats comes after confrontation at last year’s event. In 2025, tensions arose between Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
The two got into an argument over transgender women’s participation in women’s sports. The exchange started after the president called the governor out directly for allowing her state to defy his executive order barring trans women from competition.
“See you in court,” Mills retorted.
Meanwhile, Minnesota Gov. Walz and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly pulled out of the NGA last July in protest of the organization’s lack of pushback against Trump.
Trump has been publicly fighting with various Democratic governors since he began his second term last January. Most recently, he backed off his attacks on Walz amid rising backlash toward the Trump Administration’s brutal immigration policies after federal agents killed two American citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, in Minneapolis.
Gavin Newsom continues to be on the offensive against Trump. On Friday, he denounced the president’s Truth Social post depicting the Obamas as apes, calling on Republicans to condemn Trump’s actions as well.
Newsom, 58, teased a presidential bid last year, and a December Yale Youth Poll showed him as a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
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