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Greitens named to Council of Governors by Trump

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Gov. Eric Greitens received good news Monday when he was one of just seven governors named to the Council of Governors by President Donald Trump.

The Council of Governors, a bipartisan organization made of state governors, advises on matters of national defense, the national guard and defense support to local authorities. Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa currently chairs the committee.

Greitens will hold a two-year term in the office alongside Gov. Rick Scott of Florida, Gov. Bill Walker of Alaska, Gov. Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Gov. Steve Bullock of Montana, Gov. Dannel Malloy of Connecticut, and Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma. Scott, Fallin and Greitens are Republicans; Dayton, Bullock and Malloy are Democrats; and Walker is an Independent.

Governors can also sit on the committee for more than those two years, needing only to be appointed by the president again.

Greitens has thus far enjoyed ties to the Trump administration. Greitens has traveled to Washington on numerous occasions since Trump has taken over the White House.

“We’ve had a great relationship with the new administration,” Greitens communications secretary Parker Briden said. “We had the EPA commissioner, Scott Pruitt, in here recently. The governor has met with several top-level cabinet officials. The vice president has been here multiple times… We’re really eager to work with the White House, the President, anybody who’s willing to fight for the people of Missouri and help us get results for them.”

Briden credited Greitens’ conversation with Trump yesterday regarding flooding in southern Missouri as another piece of evidence of that connection.