Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is one of those Democrats whose name is being bandied about for the 2028 presidential race.
But maybe not after the picture that the NY Times just published of her at the White House this week.
She visited Washington, D.C., on Wednesday for a policy speech and a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office to discuss Michigan. In her speech, she expressed some agreement with Trump’s stance on tariffs.
Once the auto industry comes back to Michigan because Trump leveled the playing field with these Tariffs
Republicans will never lose Michigan again
Don’t take my word on it, listen to Gretchen Whitmer, who now supports Tariffs
Why.?.. bc they work 👍pic.twitter.com/P9EQjEbDLY
— @Chicago1Ray 🇺🇸 (@Chicago1Ray) April 11, 2025
That of course isn’t going to go over well with some Democrats who now want to use tariffs to attack Trump, and ignore any of the possible benefits.
Then when she went to the White House, this was the picture where it looked like she wanted to hide.
“Big Gretch” – epitome of confidence! pic.twitter.com/fXQXQsSRXI
— Sandy 〽️ (@RightGlockMom) April 12, 2025
There was also the one where she definitely looked like she was hiding–and that had everyone talking.
New photos of Governor Whitmer’s meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office were released by Eric Lee of The New York Times today.
— Zach Gorchow (@ZachGorchow) April 12, 2025
Attempting to keep her meeting with Trump under wraps only backfired, drawing more attention to it and highlighting her negative reaction. The advice here is to embrace meetings with Trump openly and confidently, emphasizing the importance of the engagement.
Politics is about talking with the other side. If he’s actually acknowledging her, she should have doubled down on how that makes her more worthy than the other likely candidates for 2028. That would have been the way to approach it. But she didn’t, she put folders in front of her face; she looks silly to people on all sides of the aisle now, and she may have just done in her 2028 hopes with that picture.
The story was she thought it was going to be a one-on-one meeting, and didn’t realize the press might be there; she also didn’t want anyone to think she was endorsing the executive orders that he signed while she was there. But the press is always all over Trump and if she’s going to the White House, she can expect it’s going to be reported on. If you don’t agree with what he signed, you can say that without hiding.
If she’s too afraid to let her Democrat base know she is meeting with Trump, how cowardly is she? The problem is that the Democrats have painted themselves into such a corner with Trump, declaring him “Hitler,” that they can’t even do normal things like talk to him about business matters.
One Democratic operative who generally supports her termed her presence a “disaster.”
CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere called the moment a “huge embarrassment,” while CNN host Audie Cornish said bluntly, “This does not look like the politics of resistance.”
And they weren’t even talking about the “hiding” picture. On that, people really teed off on her.
My sister did this as a flower girl in my uncle’s wedding. Only difference was that she was 5 https://t.co/MTvMusgsxe
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) April 12, 2025
Is @GovWhitmer hiding from the press here? Or still hiding from the people of Michigan? https://t.co/Nr9pJbZ5gk
— Mike Cox (@Mike_Cox) April 12, 2025
