Bipartisan US governors' group faces division over Trump's deployment of troops to states

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Governor JB Pritzker talks to media at a news conference in Chicago, Monday, Oct. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The Democratic governors of California and Illinois are threatening to leave the National Governors Association because of its silence on President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops across state lines despite objections from the receiving states’ leaders.

“If we cannot come together, on a bipartisan basis, on this basic principle of state sovereignty, what purpose does the National Governors Association serve?” California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked in a letter to the nation's other governors.

The bipartisan governors’ group, founded in 1908, advocates for issues on which governors find common