Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has been floated as a attainable 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, might have ended that hypothesis by embracing President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Whitmer greeted and hugged Trump as he arrived in Michigan to commemorate the one hundredth day of his time period. The 2 additionally stood on stage collectively through the occasion on the Selfridge Air Nationwide Guard Base, with Trump praising Whitmer for doing a “very good job.”
This follows Whitmer’s mid-April journey to the White Home, when she stood within the Oval Workplace whereas Trump signed govt orders focusing on former Trump officers who criticized him for mendacity concerning the 2020 election being stolen.
The turnaround by Whitmer will seemingly generate whiplash among the many governor’s strongest supporters. Again in 2020 because the nation was being ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, Whitmer was the goal of verbal assaults from Trump as she sought medical tools for her state.
On Fox Information, Trump complained of a “big problem with the young, a woman governor” and later referred to her as “Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer” who “doesn’t have a clue.”
“Every time the president ramps up this violent rhetoric, every time he fires up Twitter to launch another broadside against me, my family and I see a surge of vicious attacks sent our way” Whitmer wrote in 2020.
Trump minimized the terrorist plot to kidnap Whitmer, arguing that “maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn’t.”
Within the 2024 election, Trump gained Michigan by lower than 2% after shedding to President Joe Biden in 2020 by almost 3%.
However Trump is similar individual he has at all times been. Cozying as much as him allows his assaults on the values Whitmer has claimed to help, together with insurance policies that straight damage Michigan residents.
Democrats have had huge hassle adapting to opposing Trump once more. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has additionally been floated as a 2028 candidate, has spent the previous couple of months courting right-wing figures on his podcast and even pushing dangerous anti-trans rhetoric.
In Congress, Democrats have time and again voted to substantiate Trump’s nominees, together with simply this week with the affirmation of Tilman Fertitta as ambassador to Italy. These votes proceed, regardless that some Democratic officers have admitted that they remorse voting for different Trump nominees.
On the subject of opposing Trump, the Democrats are actually in disarray. And Whitmer didn’t hesitate to affix their ranks—with a hug, no much less.
