Gretchen Whitmer became governor after promising to “fix the damn roads” in Michigan.
Whether she goes any further depends on how well she can navigate some of the early bumps surfacing as she positions herself for a possible White House bid.
On Wednesday, during a trip to Washington, D.C., that put a spotlight on her prospects in 2028, Whitmer hit what many of her fellow Democrats saw as two sizable potholes.
First, in a policy speech outlining a “consistent national strategy,” Whitmer staked out common ground with President Donald Trump. And though Whitmer criticized Trump’s sweeping, roller-coaster rollout of — and subsequent retreat from — tariffs, she said she was not against tariffs “outright” and expressed understanding of Trump’s “motivation” behind deploying them. That drew a social media rebuke from Colorado’s Democratic governor, Jared Polis.
“Tariffs are bad outright because they lead to higher prices and destroy American manufacturing,” Polis, another potential 2028 contender who has also sought ways to find common cause with Trump, wrote on X. “Trade is inherently good because both parties emerge better off from a consensual transaction.”
Then, later Wednesday, Whitmer joined Trump in the Oval Office. She was scheduled to meet privately with him and discuss Michigan issues. That wasn’t how it ultimately played out.
Instead, she stood by as he signed several executive orders, including two calling for Justice Department probes of officials who served in his first administration and called him out for falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen. He made the false claims about the election’s being “rigged” again Wednesday.
Whitmer was invited into the Oval Office alongside Michigan state House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, as Trump held court with reporters and signed the executive orders. Photos showed Whitmer standing uncomfortably against a door as the cameras rolled.
“She’s really done an excellent job,” Trump said of Whitmer during the impromptu media availability. “Very good person.”
Though Trump did engage with her on issues she came to discuss, the fact that she was present at what amounted to a bipartisan photo opportunity as he took actions targeting political critics angered and confused allies.
“Just a f---ing disaster,” said a Democratic operative who admires Whitmer and, like others interviewed for this article, was granted anonymity to share candid thoughts about her day. “It feels like it removes some of the momentum she had as a politically savvy swing-state Dem.”
Whitmer’s team moved quickly to contain the fallout and counter mounting criticism from within her party.
“The governor was surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,” a Whitmer spokesperson said in a statement. “Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”
Democrats have long seen Whitmer as one of the party’s more formidable figures — a two-term governor of a battleground state who won re-election in a landslide and was nearly tapped to be Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020 after having considerably raised her public profile during the Covid pandemic. Whitmer is among a handful of prominent Democratic governors viewed as potential presidential contenders in 2028.
But unlike some of her contemporaries, Whitmer has chosen to seek out a stronger working relationship with Trump in his second term. Trump won her state last fall, and Whitmer views herself as more of a center-left moderate with a middle-of-the-road, Midwestern constituency — one that is receptive to Trump’s message, including and especially on manufacturing and tariff policy.
In her Washington speech Wednesday, Whitmer called for cutting red tape and building more in the United States. She also railed against “partisanship,” saying it has seemingly “infected every aspect of our lives, and it’s exhausting.”
“Let’s give more hard-working people a fair shot at a decent life,” she said. “And let’s usher in, as President Trump says, a ‘Golden Age’ of American manufacturing.”
She did break with Trump on the more substantial tariffs he announced last week and partially paused later Wednesday afternoon, describing them as a “triple whammy: higher costs, fewer jobs and more uncertainty.”
“I understand the motivation behind the tariffs, and I can tell you here’s where President Trump and I do agree,” she said. “We do need to make more stuff in America — more cars and chips, more steel and ships. We do need fair trade.”
Her stance on tariffs puts her at odds with other potential Democratic presidential hopefuls, like Polis and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who offered sharp criticism of Trump’s “wrongheaded” measures in a speech in his state Wednesday.
During a question-and-answer session with journalist Gretchen Carlson after her speech, Whitmer empathized with the many Democrats who don’t 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 get as much done for the state.”
Whitmer also said she hadn’t “thought through” how she’d handle tariffs differently from Trump, only that they should be used as a “scalpel.”
A national Democratic strategist said, “It is a massive indictment on Whitmer and her team’s judgment to, first, not have an answer on the tariff question and then go the White House and get absolutely played by Donald Trump to the point she is caught in the Oval Office as he signs one of his revenge and retribution executive orders and says 2020 was rigged.”
About tariffs, her spokesperson emphasized areas of disagreement with Trump rather than ways the two overlap on the policy.
“This morning, the governor delivered a speech in Washington, D.C., about the devastating effects tariffs were having on Michiganders — from companies increasing prices and laying off workers to retirement accounts being wiped out,” Whitmer’s spokesperson 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 businesses across the state, but we remain concerned about tariffs that will hurt American auto companies.”
Whitmer and Hall were supposed to discuss with Trump federal investment at Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base, a recent devastating ice storm in the state and a plan to deal with invasive Asian carp in Lake Michigan. Whitmer’s team and her allies described the meeting as a success on those matters.
“Governor Whitmer thanks President Trump for his acknowledgements on protecting the Great Lakes from invasive carp, his work on Selfridge, and his openness to our request for help in northern Michigan,” her spokesperson said.
A Democratic official who used to work with Whitmer said her dealings with Trump show she “is very good at advocating for her state.”
“And President Trump clearly listens to what she says and what she does,” this person said. “You saw that today on tariffs, on the progress they made on Selfridge and on the other issues she brought to discuss.”
Whitmer’s day also offered some political nuance. Her visit to the Oval Office didn’t annoy just Democrats. Republicans complained that it was an unnecessary boost to a leader they have long tried to demonize in a crucial electoral battleground.
“Trump literally just f---ed Republicans in Michigan by saying Whitmer is doing an excellent job,” a Republican strategist from Michigan wrote in a text message. “I mean, WTF, she is running to replace him in 2028.”
The budding Trump-Whitmer relationship — Wednesday’s meeting was their second in less than two months — would have been unthinkable not so long ago. Trump figured prominently in the political memoir Whitmer published last year, with a long-standing feud between them accounting for a large share of the first chapter: “Don’t Let the Bullies Get You Down.”
Whitmer wrote about how Trump responded to her criticism of his leadership during the early days of the pandemic by branding her dismissively and derisively as “that woman from Michigan.” Whitmer and her team embraced the insulting sobriquet, which became a staple in progressive merchandising.
“That’s the secret to dealing with bullies: You take their weapon and make it your shield,” Whitmer wrote. “Every time Trump gave me a nickname, I made it my own.”
That history had some observers struggling with cognitive dissonance Wednesday.
“Whitmer hurt her candidacy today,” a Democratic strategist said. “She looked and sounded nervous in the Oval Office. That visual will stick. So will the image of Trump praising her as he signed executive orders targeting his critics.”
A second Democratic operative who has worked with Whitmer previously said her speech today felt like an “opening salvo” for a presidential bid.
“There’s sort of this absolutism among Democrats where you’re either all against him or you’re not against him enough, right?” this person said. “And I think if you are a Midwestern governor, there are certainly appropriate times to be for tariffs.”
This person was surprised at the pushback she got from Polis after her address, adding that criticism showed “2028 is on.” But the person was also perplexed by Whitmer’s Oval Office appearance.
“It overall seemed not great,” this person said. “The photo of her standing there in the corner looking uncomfortable. The odd banter. The whole thing didn’t make a lot of sense. Why did it happen? Whose idea was that?”
Still, this person said Whitmer, who has pledged to work across the aisle, including with Trump, to deliver results for her state, can point to tangible results from her trip to Michiganders.
But nationally, the conversation around her visit will be very different.
“Overall, hey, great visit, right?” this person continued, rattling off the local issues Whitmer went to discuss — before pivoting to the executive order spectacle. “It felt like, holy s---, what just happened?”
