Trump praises Whitmer in friendly Oval Office meeting

President Donald Trump praised Gretchen Whitmer in a White House meeting on Wednesday, echoing a bipartisan message the Michigan governor delivered during an earlier speech in Washington, D.C.

The meeting was Whitmer’s second sit-down with the president since he took office. She raised the ongoing ice storm in northern Michigan, investments in the Selfridge Air National Guard Base outside of Detroit, invasive fish in the Great Lakes and the hottest topic of the day — tariffs — according to a spokesperson for the governor.

Trump spoke positively of Whitmer’s leadership, and even brought her with him to the Oval Office while he signed a number of unrelated executive orders.

"We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, the great State of Michigan, and she's been, she's really done an excellent job, a very good person," Trump said.

Whitmer's spokesperson said she was “surprised she was brought into the Oval Office” for Trump’s press conference “without any notice.”

Whitmer has emerged as one of the key Democratic contenders to run for president in 2028. Even though the governor insists she is not setting herself up for the White House, Whitmer will come up on her term limit in 2026 and has successfully rallied voters in a state that Trump has carried twice.

Among the directives Trump signed, he opened investigations into two of his first-term aides: former Department of Homeland Secretary official Miles Taylor and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs. The president accused Taylor of fraud, Krebs of treason, then stripped both their security clearances, repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

“Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event,” Whitmer’s spokesperson said.

Whitmer’s approach with Trump on Wednesday contrasted the staunch criticism that has united much of the Democratic Party’s platform, specifically around tariffs. Other Democratic governors that have been floated as 2028 hopefuls, like Colorado Gov. Jared Polis or Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have denounced the tariffs as a tax on average American families.

Whitmer struck a different tone in her speech, emphasizing their common ground related to building up manufacturing jobs in Michigan.

“I understand the motivation behind the tariffs, and here’s where President Trump and I do agree. We do need to make more stuff in America,” Whitmer said. “I’m not against tariffs outright, but they are a blunt tool. You can’t just bust out the tariff hammer to swing at every problem without a clearly defined end goal.”

She pushed for tariff exemptions for the auto and energy industries, which are crucial to Michigan’s economy. Trump’s 90-day pause on tariffs will not include those levied on auto imports.

The conciliatory relationship is a departure from Trump’s first term, where he and Whitmer repeatedly butted heads — especially on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when Trump called her inept. He also referred to her as “the woman from Michigan,” which Whitmer reclaimed in a post on X.

As for Trump’s second term, Whitmer signaled that she’s open to working with the president to help her state.

"If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," the governor told journalist Gretchen Carlson at an event on Wednesday.