Democratic Gov. Janet Mills will attend a banquet at the White House that gathers governors from across the country in a bipartisan event.
Mills said Friday that she would attend the National Governors Association meeting at the Capitol, according to a report from WMTW. President Donald Trump initially said that he would only be inviting Republican governors to the annual business meeting, but his administration walked that back after the NGA said it would not serve as the facilitator for the event if governors were excluded based on their party affiliation.
According to a Wednesday post from the president on Truth Social, the invitations were sent to all but two governors.
“I look forward to seeing the Republican governors, and some of the Democrats governors who were worthy of being invited, but most of whom won’t show up,” Trump posted.
Not invited to the event were Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, vice chair of the NGA, and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, according to reports. Both are Democrats.
“We’ve seen this president undermine the rule of law and trample on the Constitution at every turn and try to attack and intimidate those who dare to stand up to him or disagree with him – like he did to me last year. I will not hesitate to stand up to him again to protect Maine,” Mills said in a statement provided to WMTW.
Signs of partisan tensions emerged at the White House meeting last year, when Trump and Mills traded barbs.
Trump singled out the Democratic governor over his push to bar transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports, threatening to withhold federal funding from the state if she did not comply. Mills responded, “We’ll see you in court.”
Trump then predicted that Mills’ political career would be over for opposing the order. She is now running for U.S. Senate.
The back and forth had a lasting impact on last year’s conference and some Democratic governors did not renew their dues last year to the bipartisan group.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
