February 12, 2026 12:50 PM UTC

Democratic Governors Stand Up To Trump For Jared Polis

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• by: Colorado Pols

As we discussed earlier this week, President Donald Trump in his usual impetuous style has tainted the once-bipartisan annual gathering of governors at the White House by excluding most Democrats from a White House summit with the President, and all but two Democratic governors from a formal White House dinner: Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland and Jared Polis of Colorado.

But as USA TODAY reports via the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Gov. Polis’ fellow Democrats have decided not to let Trump’s bullying of one of their own slide:

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore received a strong show of support from their fellow Democrats after President Donald Trump barred the pair from attending a dinner, with the majority of the party’s governors announcing they would boycott it.

The traditionally bipartisan meal is part of the National Governors Association meetings set for Feb. 19-21 in Washington.

In a statement to USA TODAY, 18 Democratic governors blasted Trump’s decision.

“Democratic governors have a long record of working across the aisle to deliver results and we remain committed to this effort,” the group of governors said. “But it’s disappointing this administration doesn’t seem to share the same goal. At every turn, President Trump is creating chaos and division, and it is the American people who are hurting as a result.”

In another Truth Social screed yesterday, Trump specifically connected snubbing Polis to former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ incarceration, once again getting the facts of Peters’ case so laughably wrong that her supporters will have trouble using it:

Again, for those not following along, the prison Peters is in has no solitary confinement, there is no evidence she presently has cancer, and above all, her criminal conspiracy involving identity theft to defeat election system security and allow outside crackpots to make copies of voting machine software did not uncover any evidence of “voter fraud.” It’s necessary to repeat these facts every time Trump or another misinformation agent says otherwise, which they do on a continuous basis.

But this time, the real story isn’t about Trump’s fictionalization of the Tina Peters saga. It’s about governors who have finally had enough of Trump’s infantile reprisals, and deciding a black-tie dinner with Trump wasn’t worth legitimizing his retaliation against governors he has a personal problem with. In addition to the Democratic governors, the standoff has now provoked Trump’s wrath against the “RiNO” governor of Oklahoma, NGA chairman Kevin Stitt, who had the temerity to intercede on behalf of the Democratic governors, and reportedly got Trump to allow Democrats to attend the meeting with him…just not the fancy White House dinner.

The problem is, based on the polls, access to Trump is dropping in value every day–unless you’re offering Trump’s family hundreds of millions, of course. Then it’s still worth plenty.

If things keep on course, Trump will be begging for dinner guests by summer.