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Gov. Whitmer at the White House
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer need look no further than Mitt Romney to be reminded that President Donald Trump doesn't often deliver—or truly offer—second chances to people who have publicly criticized him and his policies. It's not in his nature.
After trashing Trump during the 2016 campaign, calling him "worthless" and a "fraud," Romney went crawling to Trump, asking to be his Secretary of State. Trump paraded him before the cameras, met with him, then rejected him. Anyone could see that coming. Betsy DeVos had interest in returning as Secretary of Education this time after resigning from that post in 2021 in protest after the Jan. 6 riot. She knew Trump would never give her a second chance, as big a supporter of the Republican Party as she is. (See clarification at bottom of story)
This past week, the politically ambitious but naive Whitmer went to the White House, bowing to Trump, thinking she was demonstrating what bipartisanship should look like. She probably thought it would bolster her image as a presidential candidate in 2028 and possibly help Michigan.
Whitmer, 53, who had trashed Trump during the pandemic and at other times, wanted him to reconsider tariffs on the auto industry. She left Washington empty-handed—without any movement on the tariffs—and became the subject of sharp criticism from the press and Democrats who felt she looked weak bowing to a president they believe is dismantling government and democracy at a record clip.
The optics of Whitmer in the Oval Office were horrible. One photo shows her covering her face with blue folders, in what appears to be a futile attempt to look low-key. Another shows her standing there with a very tentative expression, as if she were a kindergartener showing up for the first day of class, only to learn she was at the high school.
On Meet the Press Sunday, during a roundtable discussion, Politico columnist Jonathan Martin commented on the photo of Whitmer covering her face in the Oval Office:
Jonathan Martin on "Meet the Press"
"That picture is instantly iconic. This is Dukakis in the tank for the 21st century—the difference being Dukakis could blame his staff. She has nobody to blame but herself."
That was a reference to the 1988 presidential campaign when Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis put on a helmet and rode in a tank. The Republicans effectively turned that photo into an ad to ridicule him as being soft on defense. U.S. News & World Report wrote about it in a 2008 story titled: “Michael Dukakis: The Photo Op That Tanked.”
Martin, who knows the ins and outs of Washington politics as well as anyone, went on to comment on Whitmer’s decision to go to the White House and give a speech beforehand on tariffs.
"I think it was maladroit on two levels," he said, noting it was a big mistake to give the speech and then go to a White House her party views as similar to some world autocracies—like that of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
"You don't cut deals with somebody who's trying to consolidate power and erode American institutions," he said, adding:
"Why on earth is she in the White House at all, and letting herself be brought into the Oval Office? That's not her staff—that's her own instincts and her own politics, culminating in holding up that file folder. You just don't do that. It's an error for the ages."
Politico's Adam Wren wrote the other day:
When a photograph of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer looking downcast in the Oval Office exploded this week, the hungry maw of social media all but suggested it doubled as a metaphor for some Democrats who haven’t yet figured out how to engage Trump amid his second term.
Let’s not ignore that there are plenty of people who thought meeting with Trump was the right thing to do. If there were another president in office, I would agree.
Whitmer’s office issued a statement to CNN after the debacle, saying:
“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. Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”
Washington is the major leagues of politics. Nowhere else in this country is it nastier, more calculating, or more sophisticated—certainly more so than in Michigan.
Can Whitmer play in the big leagues? Will she be able to recover from this in time for the 2028 election?
Hard to say—but it’s a reminder that she needs to get more sophisticated if she wants to play the Washington game -- and win.
Clarification: The earlier version of this column said Betsy DeVos asked to become Secretary of Education this time after resigning in protest in 2021 after the Jan. 6 riot. She told the Detroit News in August 2024 that she didn't think Trump would offer the job, but she was interested in taking it to help dismantle the department.
