President Trump, first lady host governors for dinner at White House

President hosts a night of glitz and glamour.

ByABC News
February 26, 2017, 5:18 PM

— -- While Hollywood rolls out the red carpet for the Oscars tonight, the president and first lady hosted a night of glamour of their own. But instead of movie stars, the guests at the White House tonight were the nation's governors.

It's an annual tradition for the president to invite the nation's governors to the White House for a dinner. Tonight's Governor's Ball was a first for President Trump and first lady Melania Trump as host and hostess at the White House for a gala event.

"I hear this is a record number of governors, 46, and that's the highest that have ever showed up for this evening," the commander in chief said during a toast.

The theme of the dinner was Spring's Renewal, with the first lady saying in a statement, "The scents of jasmine and roses fill the air as we give thanks for this great nation and the glory of renewal."

She also said the night will be an opportunity to leave political labels behind and unite.

"I am proud to invite all the governors to the White House for this important annual event," Melania Trump said. "Tonight, we come together as one nation, leaving political labels and partisan interests behind."

However, Donald Trump briefly touted the accomplishments of his young presidency, highlighting border security, saying, "I can say that after four weeks, it's been a lot of fun accomplished, but we've accomplished almost everything we've started out to accomplish. The borders are stricter, tighter."

He teased the group's upcoming discussion of former President Obama's signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act.

"Tomorrow we're going to meet, and we're going discuss things like perhaps health care will come up, perhaps, and I think we've made a lot of progress on that, and we're going to have a speech Tuesday night, and we're going to be speaking very specifically about a very complicated subject," Trump said. "We're going to have it fixed, and we're going to repeal and replace, and I think you're going to see something very special."

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