Former U.S. President Donald Trump joins South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on the field during halftime in the Palmetto Bowl between Clemson and South Carolina at Williams Brice Stadium on Nov. 25, 2023, in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
COLUMBIA — South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster is among Republican governors meeting Thursday evening with President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration.
McMaster is taking the state plane to Florida for the gathering at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Palm Beach estate, and will return to Columbia afterward, the governor’s spokesman told the SC Daily Gazette.
McMaster, a steadfast supporter of Trump’s since 2016, joins 21 other GOP governors. It’s unclear which five Republican governors aren’t attending.
The meeting comes a month after McMaster, in his new role as policy chairman of the Republican Governors Association, led a statement signed by 26 GOP governors (all of them but Vermont’s) pledging to aid Trump’s efforts to deport “illegal immigrants who pose a threat to the United States’ communities and national security.”
“Republican governors remain fully committed to supporting the Trump Administration’s efforts to deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in this country illegally,” read the six-paragraph statement. “We will do everything in our power to assist in removing them from our communities,” to include deploying National Guard troops.
Texas, the only GOP-led state on the U.S.-Mexico border, will play a key role in the that effort.
But McMaster has ordered troops to the border before. In 2023, he was among governors who answered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request for assistance following the end of Title 42 pandemic immigration restrictions. For that mission, 150 South Carolina soldiers were activated for a month.
Trump is hosting governors a day after meeting with GOP senators in Washington, D.C., to strategize on pushing through his agenda on a host of issues, including immigration, taxes and energy.
He has welcomed an array of politicians, tycoons, and world leaders at his Florida mansion, sometimes called Trump’s second White House, since Nov. 5, when he became only the second president in U.S. history to win nonconsecutive terms.
The 45th president will be sworn in Jan. 20 as the 47th president.
McMaster will be attending the inauguration, but travel details are still in the works, said his spokesman, Brandon Charochak.