Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt leads a state that gave President Trump 66% of the vote in 2024. He’s additionally charting his personal course and has publicly differed with the president on a number of events this 12 months.
Most elected Republicans have averted direct criticism of the president. Republicans in Congress have voted for his priorities, even when some disagreed with them. Stitt has made his disagreements clear, although he has averted private assaults and is not a member of the never-Trump motion. For his half, Trump has described Stitt on social media as a “wiseguy,” amongst different issues.
Stitt mentioned his imaginative and prescient for the Republican Occasion’s post-Trump future and extra throughout an NPR video interview on the sidelines of the Nationwide Governors Affiliation assembly in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got to get again to integrity,” Stitt stated. He described an motion by the administration as “un-American.” He differed with Trump on elections and embraced the range of the US. He’s himself a member of the Cherokee Nation.
You may watch the total interview by clicking on the video above, or you’ll be able to hearken to the total interview by clicking on the blue play button above.
Beneath are some highlights from our dialog.
He needs to cease the “pendulum” swings
Stitt criticized a signature of latest administrations, particularly Trump’s: tearing up the work of earlier administrations.
He singled out a wind energy mission in Rhode Island that was canceled by the Trump administration.
“They did every little thing proper. They have been engaged on it for eight years. They’ve all their permits. They’re 90% full, they usually simply get the plug pulled on them — that’s by the administration. That is un-American. We can’t be a pendulum swing the place we’re going backwards and forwards and we’re killing totally different tasks primarily based on our political beliefs,” he stated.
In mid-January, a federal decide dominated that development on the wind farm off Rhode Island’s coast might proceed whereas the authorized battle performs out in courtroom.
He takes his personal strategy to immigration
Stitt questioned Trump’s immigration raids in Minnesota as an infringement on states’ rights. He additionally critiqued Trump’s dedication to take away everybody with out authorized standing.
“The president wants to inform us what is the endgame. Is it really to deport each single particular person right here within the nation? I do not assume that is what America needs,” Stitt stated.
Stitt advocates issuing work visas to folks with out authorized standing who’re presently employed. He additionally has argued that states ought to play a bigger function in immigration points.
He favors bipartisanship
Stitt is chair of the bipartisan Nationwide Governors Affiliation, which put him in a clumsy place this month. It is conventional for the governors to satisfy with the president throughout their winter assembly every February, however the White Home invited solely Republicans.
“The president can ask whoever he needs to the White Home, however … if it is not going to incorporate all of the governors — I signify all 50 governors — we will not facilitate it from the Nationwide Governors Affiliation,” Stitt stated.
Trump publicly criticized Stitt but in addition phoned him. The White Home ultimately invited all governors to a gathering, although two Democrats weren’t invited to a proper dinner. The incident pointed to a bigger query of working towards politics: whether or not and when to cope with the opposition.
He celebrates his Cherokee heritage — and is at odds with Cherokee leaders
Stitt proudly identifies as a part of the Cherokee Nation. He can hint his ancestry to an official checklist of Cherokees that the U.S. authorities compiled within the late 1800s. As governor, he nonetheless has been in battle with Cherokee leaders, who’re headquartered in japanese Oklahoma. Their debates contact on one of many greatest themes in American historical past, the nation’s relationship to Native nations.
Within the 1800s, Cherokees and different tribes had been pressured to depart the japanese United States, surrendering their land in trade for brand new land in what turned referred to as Indian Territory. In 1907, that territory was included into the brand new state of Oklahoma. However Cherokees maintained a separate authorities with a level of their previous sovereignty, as did different tribes such because the Creeks and Seminoles.
In a 2020 case, the Supreme Courtroom discovered that Oklahoma legislation enforcement officers had no proper to implement state legislation in what was as soon as referred to as “Indian nation.” The ability belonged to the tribes. That ruling put aside the conviction of a Seminole man who had been tried for sexual crimes within the Creek Nation.
Stitt strongly disagreed with the ruling as a menace to state authority. He has continued to battle with the tribes, and in late 2025 the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw nations sued him over the enforcement of state wildlife legal guidelines.
The dialogue of his heritage underlines another theme the place Stitt differs with many on the political proper. He spoke of Oklahoma’s range as a energy and stated he needed to draw every kind of voters to previous Republican ideas.
It additionally suggests a typical theme in Stitt’s governorship: He thinks states ought to wield extra energy. He has pushed in opposition to the federal authorities above the state and in opposition to the tribes that he feels ought to rank beneath.
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