Trump praises state leaders, touts admin. wins at annual Governors Dinner at WH

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend a dinner with state governors in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on February 21, 2026.

Arriving hand in hand with First Lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump delivered remarks on Saturday evening at the National Governors Association dinner in Washington, D.C., addressing the nation’s state leaders during the high-profile gathering at the White House. 

 The annual bipartisan dinner is designed to bring together leaders from both parties to foster relationships, exchange ideas, and explore bipartisan policy solutions.

Trump opened the evening by thanking his Cabinet members and the nation’s governors for their attendance, emphasizing the importance of collaboration between state and federal leadership.

The president also highlighted upcoming major sporting events taking place in the United States, including the World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

 

The president also touted what he described as record-setting recruitment numbers across the board, including police and fire departments as well as every branch of the military.

“The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Space Force, Coast Guard, we have waiting lists to get in,” Trump explained. “In fact, if you’d like to make those great services larger, this is an awfully good time to do it. Let’s make them larger if you want, but we’ve never had anything like it. We went from a year and a half ago, nobody wanted to join. We could not even come close to our recruitment numbers. And now we’re setting records.”

He went on to highlight what he touted as key accomplishments during his first year back in office, pointing to border crossing reaching an all-time low and asserting that the U.S. is now “back on track.”

 

“Our country is back on track. We had a horrible, horrible, dead country one and a half years ago,” the president stated. “We were dead. Now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world, as many world leaders have said. And speaking of leaders, we have a great leader, a great military leader named Pete Hegseth, and he is going to say Grace. He’s a man who has turned out to be absolutely fantastic at what he does.”

Hegseth, the Secretary of War, then took to the podium.

.@SecWar prays before the Nat'l Governors Association dinner at the White House:

"King Jesus, we come humbly before Your throne praising You for all the Providence You have bestowed upon this nation for over 250 years… One Nation Under God and, certainly, In God We Trust."  pic.twitter.com/8lY5zwJawG

 — Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 22, 2026

Vice President JD Vance also delivered remarks and praised the nation’s governors for their work, courage and leadership.

“To the governors here, we admire your courage, we admire your leadership and to the president of the United States, we admire you for all the great things you’re doing for our country,” he said.