By Ken Thomas

WASHINGTON -- President Trump lashed out at a Republican governor organizing a coming White House meeting with state leaders, the latest example of the president attacking a member of his own party.

Trump's target on Wednesday was Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association. In a social-media post, the president disputed recent reports that he had limited invitations to next week's White House meeting of the NGA to only Republican governors.

"The RINO Governor of the Great State of Oklahoma...incorrectly stated my position on the very exclusive Governors Annual Dinner and Meeting at the White House," Trump wrote, using the acronym for "Republican in Name Only."

Trump's beef with Stitt was the latest example of the president feuding with fellow Republicans. In recent months, Rep. Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), who has pushed the Justice Department to release documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case, drew the president's ire and a Trump-backed primary challenge. The president also criticized Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), who left Congress last month after a public falling out with the president.

Last month, Trump slammed five GOP senators who sided with Democrats in advancing a motion aimed at blocking him from taking further military action in Venezuela without congressional approval, saying the lawmakers "should never be elected to office again." He also called the senators directly to register his frustration. The senators included Rand Paul of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who faces re-election in a Democrat-leaning state.

In a note to governors before Trump's social-media post, Stitt wrote that the president was inviting all of the governors of the nation's states and territories to a Feb. 20 breakfast at the White House, adding, "He was very clear in his communications with me that this is a National Governors Association's event, and he looks forward to hosting you and hearing from governors across the country."

"President Trump said this was always his intention, and we have addressed the misunderstanding in scheduling," Stitt wrote. Stitt spokeswoman Sarah Corley said Stitt on Monday received his invitation to the breakfast meeting "and he looks forward to the rest of his colleagues receiving their invitations today."

The NGA was told last week by White House staff that only Republican governors would be invited to the White House business meeting, an NGA official said. The NGA then told governors and their staff that the business meeting would be removed from NGA's agenda because it was no longer accessible to all NGA members.

The NGA also informed two Democratic governors -- Jared Polis of Colorado and Wes Moore of Maryland -- last week that the White House was planning to exclude them from an annual black-tie dinner. Moore, the vice chairman of the NGA, said in a Sunday interview with CNN's "State of the Union" that "it's not lost to me that I'm the only Black governor in this country" and said it was painful to be excluded from the event as the group's vice chair.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked about the snub earlier in the week, said the White House is "the people's house, it's also the president's home and so he can invite whomever he wants to dinners and events here at the White House."

In the social-media post, Trump acknowledged Wednesday that he wasn't inviting Polis and Moore to the dinner. He said Polis has "unfairly incarcerated in solitary confinement" Tina Peters, a former Colorado election official who is serving time on state charges for her role in a voting-machine security breach. The president granted Peters a pardon last year, but the reprieve is symbolic for now because presidents have no power to pardon people for state offenses.

The president said Moore, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, was "doing a terrible job on the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, " which collapsed in March 2024 after it was struck by a shipping vessel, and accused the governor of allowing Baltimore to be a "Crime Disaster."

Spokesmen for Polis and Moore didn't immediately comment.

Trump, who carried Oklahoma with at least 65% of the vote in his three presidential campaigns, endorsed Stitt in his 2018 and 2022 campaigns for Oklahoma governor. During the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, Stitt endorsed fellow Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida. After Trump clinched the GOP nomination, Stitt backed Trump in the general election.

The president appeared to reference the endorsement in Wednesday's social-media post, writing, "as usual with him, Stitt got it WRONG!"

The annual NGA gathering at the White House has typically been a bipartisan event allowing the president and the nation's governors the opportunity to discuss policy issues.

But the NGA event was the site of a Trump confrontation last year. During a public meeting at the White House, Trump singled out Maine Gov. Janet Mills, demanding that she comply with an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports. Mills is now seeking to challenge Collins in the Maine Senate race.

"Trump is doing everything he can to become the most polarizing president in American history. The NGA is truly one of the few nonpartisan, bipartisan organizations you have left in America," said former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a former NGA chairman.

Write to Ken Thomas at ken.thomas@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 11, 2026 18:35 ET (23:35 GMT)

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