Most of the nation’s Democratic governors pledged to not attend events hosted by the White House later this month, after President Donald Trump snubbed some state executives amid his ongoing feud with blue states.

Blue Light News reported last week that the White House decided to invite only Republicans to a meeting between the president and governors that was timed to the National Governors Association’s annual gathering — a break from its bipartisan past. And while a dinner celebrating governors of both parties was still planned, some Democrats — including Wes Moore of Maryland and Jared Polis of Colorado — confirmed they did not receive an invitation.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that while 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.”

Trump’s decision not to invite Moore — the association’s vice chair — and Polis sparked backlash from Democrats, with 18 sitting governors announcing that they would boycott the dinner.

“If the reports are true that not all governors are invited to these events, which have historically been productive and bipartisan opportunities for collaboration, we will not be attending the White House dinner this year,” the Democratic governors wrote in a joint statement Tuesday. “Democratic governors remain united and will never stop fighting to protect and make life better for people in our states.”

Moore also suggested Sunday that his race may have played a role in the White House’s decision not to invite him to the event.

“It’s not lost on me that I’m the only Black governor in this country, and I find that to be particularly painful, considering the fact that the president is trying to exclude me from an organization that not only my peers have asked me to help to lead, but then also a place where I know I belong in,” he said in an interview with BLN’s “State of the Union.”

Blue Light News previously reported that the NGA decided not to sponsor the planned meeting between Trump and the governors once it became clear only Republicans would be invited, with the organization writing in an email to people involved in planning that “no NGA resources will be used to support transportation for this activity.”

Brandon Tatum, the CEO of the NGA, said in a statement last week that the group was “disappointed in the administration’s decision to make it a partisan occasion this year.”

At last year’s annual meeting between Trump and the governors, the president got into an argument with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over his administration’s moves to restrict transgender athletes’ participation in school sports, with Trump ultimately threatening to pull funding and Mills promising to sue.

The NGA has undergone considerable turmoil in the last year, with Democratic governors raising alarm about the association’s unwillingness to more vocally criticize the Trump administration.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker threatened to withdraw from the group over Trump’s decision to deploy other states’ National Guard troops to their states.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the group’s Republican chair, also criticized the administration’s National Guard deployments, telling The New York Times in an October interview that he worried the president was undermining states’ rights.

In a letter sent Monday by Stitt to other governors and obtained by The Associated Press, he urged members to unite together, writing “the solution is not to respond in kind, but to rise above and to remain focused on our shared duty to the people we serve.”

The New York Times also first reported last week that some Democratic governors weren’t invited to the dinner.

“The President has the discretion to invite whomever he wants to the White House, and he welcomes all those who received an invitation to come, and if they don’t want to, that’s their loss,” Leavitt said of the dinner on Tuesday.

New York City officials plan to reraise a pride flag at the federal monument at Stonewall in Manhattan, setting up a potential fight with the White House at the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement nearly 60 years ago.

Federal officials quietly took the flag down after the Trump administration in January issued guidance drastically limiting the types of flags that could be displayed at sites managed by the National Park Service. But Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said in an interview on Tuesday that he and other New York City-area politicians would reraise the flag at the federal monument on Thursday.

“I think it’s important that we speak out and stand up for the community, frankly, just as our forebearers, who exhibited much more courage back in 1969,” he said. “This is not a moment for our community to stand by idly as attempts to undermine our history are put forward by Trump and the federal administration.”

The Stonewall Inn was the site of famous protests in 1969, which were sparked after police raided the New York City gay bar and arrested its patrons. The subsequent uprisings led to greater visibility for gay and lesbian people across the country.

The Inn remains in private hands, but a park across the street is national parkland. Hoylman-Sigal said New York City officials intended to raise the flag on federal land.

The Department of Interior — NPS’ parent agency — confirmed the flag was removed in a statement.

“Under government-wide guidance, including General Services Administration policy and Department of the Interior direction, only the U.S. flag and other congressionally or departmentally authorized flags are flown on NPS-managed flagpoles, with limited exceptions,” the Department of the Interior said in a statement. “Any changes to flag displays are made to ensure consistency with that guidance.”

An Interior spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the New York City officials’ plans. The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Trump administration has made several changes to national parks as the president pushes what he describes as an “anti-DEI” agenda. The agency took down exhibits on slavery at the Philadelphia site of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in January. And last August, NPS announced plans to reinstate a statue of Confederate general Albert Pike in Washington.

Hoylman-Sigal called the latest move “another outrage by the Trump administration directed at the LGBTQ community, whether it’s transgender youth or immigrants or queer people in general.”

Pride flags have continued to fly at the Stonewall Inn and visitor’s center, which are privately owned, according to Brandon Wolf, the national press secretary at the LGBTQ+ rights group Human Rights Campaign.

“We will keep showing up at Stonewall, for each other, and being out and proud,” he said in a statement. “There’s nothing the White House can do about that.”