Gov. Janet Mills is among 18 Democratic governors boycotting an annual meeting at the White House after President Donald Trump disinvited two of their colleagues.
The National Governors Association's annual meeting and dinner at the White House have long been a bipartisan gathering, but that tradition fell apart this year after Trump excluded Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.
The president also announced that only Republican governors would be invited to the NGA's meeting at the White House.
Polis and Moore are frequent targets of the president's attacks and their exclusion by Trump prompted Mills and other Democratic governors to boycott the event later this month.
The same event was the setting for Trump's confrontation with Mills nearly a year ago. At the time, he tried to get her to follow his executive order banning transgender athletes from girls' sports, a move in contradiction with Maine law. The dustup touched off a wave of retribution by the White House as it cancelled grants and programs in Maine.
It also vaulted Mills onto the national stage, leading to her eventual run for the U.S. Senate.
