Gretchen Whitmer became governor after promising “fixing the damn roads” in Michigan.
If you go further it depends on how well you can navigate some of the first blows that arise while positioning for a possible offer of the White House.
On Wednesday, during a trip to Washington, DC, who took his prospects in 2028, Whitmer hit what many of his fellow Democrats saw as two considerable potholes.
First, in a political discourse that describes a “consistent national strategy,” Whitmer had the common land with President Donald Trump. And although Whitmer criticized the launch of Trump’s Russian mountain, and the subsequent withdrawal of the rates, he said he was not against the “directly” tariffs and expressed the understanding of Trump’s “motivation” behind the deployment. That took a rebuke on the social networks of the Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis.
“Tariffs are bad because they lead at higher prices and destroy US manufacturing,” Polis, another 2028 contender potential that has also sought ways to find a common cause with Trump, wrote in X. “Trade is inherently good because both parties emerge better from a consensual transaction.”
Then, later on Wednesday, Whitmer joined Trump at the Oval office. It was scheduled to meet private with him and discuss Michigan’s problems. This is how it finally developed.
Instead, she stood up while he signed several executive orders, including two calls to the Department of Justice of the officials who served in his first administration and called him for falsely stating that the 2020 elections were stolen. He made the false statements about the “manipulated” elections again on Wednesday.
Whitmer was invited to the Oval office along with the president of the Michigan House of Representatives, Matt Hall, a Republican, while Trump had a court with the journalists and signed the executive orders. The photos showed Whitmer awkwardly against a door while the cameras rolled.
“He has really done an excellent job,” Trump said about Whitmer during the improvised availability of media. “Very good person.”
Although Trump promised her on issues that came to discuss, the fact that he was present in what was equivalent to a bipartisan photographic opportunity while taking measures aimed at angry critics and confused allies.
“Only a disaster,” said a Democratic operation that admires Whitmer and, like others interviewed for this article, anonymity was given to share sincere thoughts about his day. “It seems that it eliminates part of the impulse that had a politically intelligent demon.”
Whitmer’s team moved quickly to contain the consequences and growing criticisms of his group.
“The governor was surprised that they took her to the Oval Office” during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the issue, “a Whitmer The spokesman said in a statement. “Its presence is not support of the actions taken or statements made in that event.”
The Democrats have long seen Whitmer as one of the most formidable figures of the party: a governor of two periods of a battlefield that won re -election in a landslide and was almost used to be the Joe Biden’s formula partner in 2020 after having considerably elevated his public profile during the Covid pandemic. Whitmer is among a handful of prominent democratic governors seen as possible presidential contenders in 2028.
But unlike some of his contemporaries, Whitmer has chosen to find a stronger working relationship with Trump in his second term. Trump won his state last fall, and Whitmer is considered more moderate in the center-left with an intermediate and half west constituency, a receptive to Trump’s message, including and especially in the manufacturing and rate policy.
In his Washington speech on Wednesday, Whitmer asked to cut bureaucracy and build more in the United States. He also criticized “partisanship”, saying that he has apparently “infected all aspects of our lives, and is exhausting.”
“We give more people who work more workers in a decent life,” he said. “And we are going to introduce, as President Trump says, a ‘golden age’ of American manufacturing.”
She broke with Trump in the most substantial rates she announced last week later arrested later on Wednesday afternoon, describing them as a “triple blow: higher costs, less jobs and more uncertainty.”
“I understand the motivation behind the rates, and I can tell him that this is where President Trump and I agree,” he said. “We need to do more things in the United States: more cars and french fries, more steel and ships. We need fair trade.”
Her position on tariffs disagrees with other possible democratic presidential applicants, such as Polis and the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, who offered strong criticisms of Trump’s “annoying” measures in a speech in his state on Wednesday.
During a question and answer session with the journalist Gretchen Carlson after his speech, Whitmer empathized himself with the many Democrats who do not want Democratic officials to work with Trump. But she said she needs to be collaborative because “I took an oath to the people of Michigan to try to do so much for the State.”
Whitmer also said he had not “thought” how to handle tariffs differently from Trump, only that they should be used as a “scalpel.”
A national Democratic strategist said: “It is a massive accusation about Whitmer and the trial of his team to first have an answer on the tariff question and then go to the White House and be absolutely interpreted by Donald Trump to the point that he is caught in the Oval office while signing one of his executive orders of revenge and remuneration and says that 2020 was handled.”
On the rates, his spokesman emphasized the areas of disagreement with Trump instead of ways in which the two overlap in politics.
“This morning, the governor delivered a speech in Washington, DC, on the devastating effects that tariffs were having in the Michiganders, from the companies that increased prices and fired workers to the retirement accounts that are eliminated,” Whitmer spokesman said. “This afternoon, the 90 -day pause was announced, and that is a step in the right direction and will provide relief to so many companies throughout the state, but we are still concerned about tariffs that will harm US car companies.”
Whitmer and Hall were supposed to discuss with Trump’s federal investment at the base of the Michigan National Guard, a recent devastating ice storm in the state and a plan to deal with the invasive Asian tent in Lake Michigan. Whitmer’s team and his allies described the meeting as a success in those matters.
“Governor Whitmer thanks President Trump for his recognitions on the protection of the great lakes of the invasive tent, his work in Selfridge and his openness to our request for help in northern Michigan,” said his spokesman.
A Democratic official who used to work with Whitmer said his treatment with Trump shows that “it is very good to advocate for his state.”
“And President Trump clearly listens to what he says and what he does,” said this person. “You saw that today in rates, about the progress they made in Selfridge and in the other issues he brought to discuss.”
Whitmer’s day also offered some political nuances. His visit to the Oval office did not bother the Democrats. Republicans complained that it was an unnecessary impulse for a leader who have long tried to demonize a crucial electoral battlefield.
“Trump literally fined Republicans in Michigan saying that Whitmer is doing an excellent job,” he wrote a Michigan Republican strategist in a text message. “I mean, WTF, she is running to replace it in 2028”.
The incipient Trump-Whitmer relationship, Wednesday’s meeting was the second in less than two months, it would have been unthinkable not long ago. Trump contained prominently in the political memories that Whitmer published last year, with a long dispute between them that represents a large part of the first chapter: “Do not let the thugs discourage you.”
Whitmer wrote about how Trump responded to his criticisms of his leadership during the first days of the pandemic by qualifying it derogatoryly and mockingly as “that woman of Michigan.” Whitmer and his team adopted the insulting nickname, which became a basic element in progressive marketing.
“That is the secret to dealing with thugs: you take his gun and make him his shield,” Whitmer wrote. “Every time Trump gave me a nickname, I did mine.”
That story had some observers who fought with cognitive dissonance on Wednesday.
“Whitmer hurt his candidacy today,” said a Democratic strategist. “She seemed and sounded nervously in the oval office. That visual will remain. So will the image of Trump praise her while signing executive orders aimed at her critics.”
A second Democratic operation that has worked with Whitmer previously said that his speech today felt as a “opening save” for a presidential offer.
“There is a kind of absolutism among the Democrats in which everyone is against him or you are not against him enough, right?” This person said. “And I think that if you are a governor of the west, there are certainly appropriate times to be for tariffs.”
This person was surprised by the setback he received from polis after his direction, and added that the criticism showed “2028 is underway.” But the person was also perplexed by the appearance of Oval Oval of Whitmer.
“In general, it didn’t seem great,” said this person. “She stopped her there in the corner looks uncomfortable. The strange jokes. Everything did not make much sense. Why did it happen? Who was the idea?”
Even so, this person said that Whitmer, who has pledged to work in the hall, even with Trump, to deliver results for his state, can point out the tangible results of his trip to the Michiganders.
But at the national level, the conversation about your visit will be very different.
“In general, hey, great visit, right?” This person continued, taking out the local problems that Whitmer went to discuss, before turning to the show of the executive order. “He felt like, Holy S —, what has just happened?”
