Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Mills attended a White House meeting that she said she would not attend earlier Friday.
Gov. Janet Mills made a last-minute decision to attend a Friday breakfast meeting for governors at the White House after saying less than two hours before that she would skip it.
The meeting became a point of contention when the National Governors Association pulled out of the annual meeting following President Donald Trump’s initial move to disinvite Mills and other Democratic governors.
Mills issued a statement around 8 a.m. saying she would not attend the meeting because Trump has turned it into an “unproductive vanity project.” But she then appeared in photos taken by Reuters at the event, which began around 9:30 a.m.
In a statement afterward, Mills said she had “a gut feeling that she should attend” the meeting that prompted a sharp exchange between her and Trump a year ago. That clash has defined her campaign for the Democratic nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2026.
“At the end of the day, I will sit through whatever painful meeting or narcissistic venture by [Trump] that I have to if it means there’s even a sliver of a chance I can do something to defend Maine,” Mills said in that second statement.
Trump gave brief remarks on camera as the event began but then ordered press out of the room. The contradictory messaging from Mills follows days of other stops and starts from the Trump administration.
Initially, Trump uninvited all Democratic governors to the White House. Later the same day, the administration claimed it would host a dinner for all governors except for Maryland’s Wes Moore and Colorado’s Jared Polis. That prompted Mills and other governors to boycott the meeting.
Days later, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, said that Trump had agreed to invite Moore and Polis. The president then quickly took to Truth Social, a social media platform he holds a majority-ownership stake of, to deny that and call Stitt, who chairs the National Governors Association, a “RINO,” or “Republican In Name Only.”
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Last February, Trump singled out Maine during a Republican governors meeting in Washington. The next day Trump and Mills crossed paths at the governors event at the White House. In a heated exchange, Trump pressed Mills on the state’s policy toward transgender athletes and the governor told the president that she would “see you in court.”
In response, Trump launched a pressure campaign against Maine, threatening to withhold federal funds from the state if it didn’t align with him on trans athletes. Six federal agencies launched sprawling Title IX investigations into the state government, the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, the University of Maine System and a high school.
That culminated last April in a lawsuit in which the U.S. Department of Justice accused Maine of discriminating against girls and women and failing to protect them in sports. That case is still winding its way through the courts.