Gretchen Witless

First Gavin Newsom tried to make nice with MAGA.  Now it's another governor's turn.

Unlike Newsom, however, who only sought interactions with high-profile Trump supporters on his podcast, Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, embraced Donald Trump himself.  Even as Trump postponed sweeping tariffs for ninety days in light of the global economy cratering (and some foreign manufacturers, like automakers, holding back their products at American ports!), Whitmer said that she was not against tariffs outright and added that she understood Trump's motivation for initiating them.

If Whitmer understood Trump's motivation for initiating tariffs, she would be against tariffs outright . . . at least the sort of destructive tariffs Trump is pushing.

Whitmer could have stopped there, but she then met with Trump at the White House to discuss issues and crises pertinent to her state, like an ice storm that hit the northern part of Michigan, and the result was that the electricity surrounding her 2028 presidential ambitions, like the electricity for northern Michigan residents, went out with a loud thump.  She unwittingly found herself in the Oval Office while Trump signed executive orders demanding investigations of Republican critic Miles Taylor for calling Trump to task over his potentially illegal actions in his first presidential term and of former Trump official Christopher Krebs of having declared the 2020 presidential election to be free fair and secure.  (Trump also intimated that Miles Taylor could be guilty of treason, which, like publishing a blog critical of Trump could be soon, is a capital offense.)  As a visibly nervous Whitmer looked on, Trump praised as was a "very good person" who has been doing an excellent job."

Remember when Elissa Slotkin said that the energy for the top of the Democratic ticket in Michigan in the 2024 presidential campaign wasn't there?  Well, that's why Whitmer is making nice with Trump.  As Allan Smith and Henry Gomez of NBC News wrote, "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."

Whitmer forgot one simple fact, though . . . her strategy might be effective in winning Michigan in 2028, but as a national candidate for President, she has to carry enough other states to win the Presidency.  And Democrats in other states are appalled at what she just did and said, with one Democratic operative calling it "a disaster."

Once again, I am for dissolving the Union and breaking up the United States into separate countries.  Whitmer might still be able to get elected president of a post-Union Midwestern republic.  But after how she just "handled" Trump, no one outside of Michigan wants her to run for President of the United States.  Probably even no one inside of Michigan as well.