Michigan Governor Governor Whitmer is betting on the photo worthwhile.
When he went to the White House this month for his unfortunate meeting with President Trump, who hid his face from a New York Times photographer, she tried to obtain funds for an expansion base or the base of the Selfridge National Air Guard near Detroit.
Then, when Trump traveled to Michigan on Tuesday to announce in his day 100 in the position he was doing precisely what Mrs. Whitmer had asked, she had reasons for a return of victory, despite the possible cost for her political perspectives. She greeted him upon arrival, creating another photo of them together, and then Letly stopped by her side to comment by thanking him for expanding the base.
In Michigan, Mrs. Whitmer and her allies see the expansion in Selfridge as a great enough victory to be restless of any personal humiliation that she endured. The Defense Department will be at the base of 20 F-15Ex combat planes at the base from 2028, according to a document that circulated to the Senators of Michigan.
The new aircraft group is a small fraction of the approximately 450 combat planes in the National Guard Air, but many of those aircraft are old models. The F-15EX is the newest version of one of the most versatile combatants of the US army. And only 20 aircraft can have a great economic impact on local communities because, in addition to bringing pilots, dozens of security, maintenance and logistics work can mean. Studies published by the military find that the bases of the National Air Guard such as Selfridge can contribute more than $ 100 million to the economy of a state.
“This is a great bipartisan victory for Michigan, decades in process, that our economy will grow and make our country safer,” Whitmer said. “I appreciate the association of the president in this new combat mission that will protect jobs and show the world that Michigan is the best place to be a pioneer in the next innovations in national defense.”
At least, Mrs. Whitmer has become a standard winner of the faction of the Democratic Party who is trying to work with Trump. She has great pains: a handwritten letter, two oval office meetings, telephone calls, to build a constructive relationship with the president, which also means that she has tended to avoid her public criticism.
Mr. Trump, lasting his comments on Tuesday in Michigan, settled Mrs. Whitmer and her defense for her state.
“That is why she came to see me,” he said. “To save Selfridge.”
In the letter, he says while standing next to Mr. Trump, Mrs. Whitmer did not say her name, but expressed her appreciation.
“Thank you,” he said, resorting to Mr. Trump. “I am very grateful that this ad is made today, and I appreciate all the work.”
Other Democrats, such as Governor JB Pritzker or Illinois, are asking for mass protests against Trump and his Republican allies. Connecticut’s Senator Chris Murphy has adopted a strategy to fight each Trump action in Congress. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and several progressive members of the Chamber traveled to El Salvador to protest the illegal deportation of an undocumented immigrant from Maryland.
None of those Democrats has won any concession of Trump’s White House. Mrs. Whitmer has.
She has sailed the reality that Trump rewards those who seek their favor and punish those who do not. While his administration has made Mr. Pritzker’s Chicago an approach to his anger, Detroit of Mrs. Whitmer has escaped similar scrutiny.
Selfridge’s expansion has an economic and symbolic significance for Mrs. Whitmer and Michigan’s Democrats. It is located in Swingy Macomb County, which since 2000 has backed Al Gore, George W. Bush, Barack Obama twice and Mr. Trump three times in the presidential elections. The base has 5,000 military and civil employees, with another 30,000 civil jobs linked to their operations, according to the data of the Office of Mrs. Whitmer.
The measure is not the first time that Trump changes military resources to reward a state he won. In his first term, he transferred the headquarters of the United States Space Command to Huntsville, Alabama, from Colorado Springs. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. canceled the measure in 2023. Representative Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, said in a recent podcast that he expected Trump to order again that the headquarters of the space command be transferred to Huntsville.
Mrs. Whitmer, who is prohibited by period limits to seek re -election next year, will claim credit for the expansion of the base. If Trump shares any of that credit, or the Macomb voters who supported him, see Mrs. Whitmer as the instigator of her movement on Tuesday is another matter.
The ambitious Democrats in Michigan showed little interest on Tuesday in the discussion if Mrs. Whitmer made the right movement when visiting the White House to press Trump. Of the six leading Democrats who run for governor and the Senate in 2026, only Jocelyn Benson, the Secretary of State who is postulated for governor, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who lost a 2018 primary career before Mrs. Whitmer and now postulates for the Senate, agree to discuss the issue.
Mrs. Benson said it was difficult to trust any promise made by Trump given her long history of criminal.
“If today we talk about good things that happen for the Michiganders that the governor has asked, great, I will believe it when I see it, when it is Activex to Fruitsion and then stays,” he said.
Dr. El-Sayed said his goal to run for the Senate was to hold Trump hold, not to make deals with him.
“What I am really focused on is defending this president to remind him that he is an elected president, not a king and not a tyrant,” he said. “I think it is essential that we focus on those problems at this time.”
Beyond Michigan, there is a more important question: if Mrs. Whitmer postulates for president in 2028, how will she play her cooperation with Trump with the primary Democratic voters?
But Neith or anyone else has declared that they are running. And so far it seems to be less activity chasing the White House that, for example, Mr. Pritzker, whose ardent speech on Sunday night in New Hampshire made him the first person to win the “Campaign 2028” of C-Span.
