Feb. 20, 2026, 5:06 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON – When governors from across the country met at the White House last year during their annual winter convention in the nation’s capital, a four-letter phrase uttered by one of them went down in political infamy.
Janet Mills, a Democrat who leads the state of Maine, hurled the words at President Donald Trump after he singled her out. If Mills didn’t fully comply with his recent executive order attempting to ban transgender athletes from school sports, Trump warned he’d close off federal funding for Maine.
Over the last year, her bring-it-on rebuttal became a rallying cry for the leaders of many blue states who’ve flooded the judicial system with lawsuits against the Trump administration. And it arguably launched Mills’ bid to unseat Susan Collins, Maine’s longtime Republican senator, this November.
A historically bipartisan affair, the National Governors Association winter meeting in Washington, DC, has only gotten more political.
This time around, Trump initially tried to only invite GOP governors to meet with him during the conference. Pressure from the governor of Oklahoma – Kevin Stitt, the Republican chair of the NGA – caused the president to mostly back off. though not without criticism.
“As usual with him, Stitt got it WRONG!” Trump said in a Feb. 11 Truth Social post. He insisted he still wouldn’t allow Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to the White House.
All the controversy is shining a light on the latest bipartisan tradition in Washington to become more politicized during President Trump‘s second term. It’s also happening at a time when an unusual number of congressional lawmakers are eyeing governor’s mansions.
Despite the partisan bickering, governors of both parties are pledging to set aside their differences at their annual meetings (even if some snub the White House in protest).
“There’s more that unites us as governors than divides us,” Stitt said at a Feb. 18 event. “We actually get along.”
Change from Trump’s first term
When Steve Bullock, the former Democratic governor of Montana, chaired the National Governors Association for a year during Trump’s first term, there were lots of things he disagreed with the president on. Still, the pair managed to get along.
Bullock knew things were different when he saw Trump single out Maine’s governor last year.
“That’s not how these business meetings ever operated,” he told USA TODAY.
The purpose of a governors’ meeting with the White House, he said, was never to “pick on one state,” but to “discuss the real issues of federalism,” or the division of power between federal and state governments. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who led the state of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003, said conversations with her GOP counterparts helped her do her job better.
“When I was governor, I valued being able to compare notes with Republican colleagues on how we could make government work better for our constituents, even when we had philosophical disagreements,” she said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Like many political traditions in the Trump 2.0 era, the annual meeting has been reshaped by the president’s whims. But that shouldn’t detract from the important, bipartisan work the National Governors Association does, Maryland’s Wes Moore told USA TODAY in an interview – even if Trump continues to single him out.
“We will continue all the traditions of being able to make sure that we’re spending time together, getting to know each other, Republicans and Democrats,” he said.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
