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The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer – considered to be a 2028 White House Democratic contender – was trying to distance herself from a recent Oval Office appearance alongside Donald Trump, which saw her get photographed while blocking her face with binders.
Whitmer visited the Republican president on Wednesday alongside a bipartisan delegation to discuss a northern Michigan ice storm, the state’s defense assets and tariffs, among other issues. Following the meeting, Whitmer was brought into the Oval Office where she – as the New York Times described – “stood glumly” during a press conference that saw Trump sign several executive orders that targeted his political opponents.
In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Whitmer said the governor was caught off guard by the media appearance.
“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,” the Whitmer spokesperson said. “Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”
The Whitmer administration’s efforts to distance her from the press conference came after the president praised her, saying: “We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, great state of Michigan, and she’s been, she’s really done an excellent job, very good person.”
The comments marked a shift from his public comments made about the governor five years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, Trump said he had a “big problem” with the “young, a woman governor” in Michigan, adding that “all she does is sit there and blame the federal government”.
Whitmer, meanwhile, blamed Trump for a failed plot to kidnap her that was devised by rightwing extremists – a case that led to nine convictions.
Speaking to reporters at a college event in Michigan after Wednesday’s press conference, Whitmer said: “It was not where I wanted to be or planned to be or would have liked to have been.
“I disagree with a lot of stuff that was said and the actions that were taken. But I stayed in the room because I needed to make the case for Michigan, and that’s my job.”
Whitmer nevertheless has been criticized, particularly online, including for blocking her face with binders at one point during the conference while a picture was snapped.
One user wrote on X: “She just stood there as he signed executive orders. Democrats, NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU.”
Another person said: “One of my favorite things about things like this is that she would’ve been better off just having her photo taken. ‘(Normal) Gretchen Whitmer in the White House’ would’ve been a lot less embarrassing than ‘(Hiding) Gretchen Whitmer.’”
Someone else wrote: “Is [Whitmer] hiding from the press here? Or still hiding from the people of Michigan?”
Whitmer’s state is one of the most crucial electoral battlegrounds in the US.
With base Democratic voters increasingly criticizing members of their party for not taking a harder line against the Trump administration, Whitmer has said publicly that she does not regard herself as “the leader of the opposition”.
In January, she told the Associated Press: “I have shared with some of my colleagues from some of the very blue states that my situation here in Michigan is very different than theirs. I’ve got a Republican House of Representatives – majority-Republican House – now to work with.
“I’ve got to make sure that I can deliver and work with folks of the federal government, and so I don’t view myself as the leader of the opposition like some might.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Adrian Hemond, the chief executive of the political consulting firm Grassroots Midwest, recently told: “She’s been trying to work with Trump since he got back in office, which is appropriate.
“She’s a swing-state governor.”
Meanwhile, David Dulio, a political science professor at Michigan’s Oakland University, told the outlet: “It is more a reflection of the state of the Democratic party that a popular Midwestern governor can go to Washington, get some wins on bipartisan issues and get attacked for it by her own people.”
Whitmer was first elected as Michigan’s governor in 2018 and then re-elected in 2022 by a wider margin than her first victory.
