Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan is betting that the photo was worth it.
When she went to the White House this month for her ill-fated meeting with President Trump — the one where she hid her face from a New York Times photographer — she had been trying to secure funding for an expansion of Selfridge Air National Guard Base near Detroit.
So when Mr. Trump traveled to Michigan on Tuesday to announce on his 100th day in office that he was doing precisely what Ms. Whitmer had asked for, she had cause for a victory lap — despite the possible cost to her political prospects. She greeted him upon his arrival, creating another photo of them together, and then briefly stood beside him to make remarks thanking him for expanding the base.
In Michigan, Ms. Whitmer and her allies view the expansion at Selfridge as a big enough victory to be worth whatever personal humiliation she endured. The Defense Department will station 20 F-15EX fighter jets at the base beginning in 2028, according to a document it circulated to Michigan’s senators.
The new group of jets is a small fraction of the roughly 450 fighter jets in the Air National Guard, but many of those planes are old models. The F-15EX is the newest version of one of the U.S. military’s most versatile fighters. And even 20 jets can have a big economic impact on local communities because in addition to bringing in pilots, they can mean scores of security, maintenance and logistics jobs. Studies released by the military find that Air National Guard bases like Selfridge can contribute more than $100 million to a state’s economy.
“This is a huge, bipartisan win for Michigan, decades in the making, that will grow our economy and make our country safer,” Ms. Whitmer said. “I appreciate the president’s partnership on this new fighter mission that will protect jobs and show the world that Michigan is the best place to pioneer the next innovations in national defense.”
If nothing else, Ms. Whitmer has emerged as a standard-bearer of the faction of the Democratic Party that is cautiously trying to work with Mr. Trump. She has taken great pains — a handwritten letter, two Oval Office meetings, phone calls — to build a constructive relationship with the president, which also means she has tended to avoid public criticism of him.
Mr. Trump, during his remarks on Tuesday in Michigan, heaped praised on Ms. Whitmer and her advocacy for her state.
“That’s the reason she came to see me,” he said. “To save Selfridge.”
In her brief remarks while standing next to Mr. Trump, Ms. Whitmer did not say his name but expressed her appreciation to him.
“Thank you,” she said, turning to Mr. Trump. “I am so grateful that this announcement is made today, and I appreciate all the work.”
Other Democrats, like Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, are calling for mass protests against Mr. Trump and his Republican allies. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has embraced a strategy of fighting every Trump action in Congress. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and several progressive House members traveled to El Salvador to protest the illegal deportation of an undocumented immigrant from Maryland.
None of those Democrats have won any concessions from Mr. Trump’s White House. Ms. Whitmer has.
She has navigated the reality that Mr. Trump rewards those who seek his favor and punishes those who do not. While his administration has made Mr. Pritzker’s Chicago a focus of its ire, Ms. Whitmer’s Detroit has escaped similar scrutiny.
The Selfridge expansion has both economic and symbolic significance for Ms. Whitmer and Michigan Democrats. It sits in swingy Macomb County, which since 2000 has backed Al Gore, George W. Bush, Barack Obama twice and Mr. Trump three times in presidential elections. The base has 5,000 military and civilian employees, with another 30,000 civilian jobs tied to its operations, according to data from Ms. Whitmer’s office.
The move is not the first time Mr. Trump has shifted military resources to reward a state he won. In his first term, he moved the United States Space Command headquarters to Huntsville, Ala., from Colorado Springs. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. canceled the move in 2023. Representative Mike Rogers, Republican of Alabama, said on a recent podcast that he expected Mr. Trump to again order that the Space Command headquarters be moved to Huntsville.
Ms. Whitmer, who is barred by term limits from seeking re-election next year, will claim credit for the base’s expansion. Whether Mr. Trump shares any of that credit, or if the Macomb voters who backed him see Ms. Whitmer as the instigator of his move on Tuesday, is another matter.
Ambitious Democrats in Michigan showed little interest on Tuesday in discussing whether Ms. Whitmer made the right move in visiting the White House to lobby Mr. Trump. Of the six leading Democrats running for governor and Senate in 2026, only Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state who is running for governor, and Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who lost a 2018 primary race to Ms. Whitmer and is now running for Senate, agreed to discuss the topic.
Ms. Benson said it was difficult to trust any promises made by Mr. Trump given his long record of misdirection.
“If there is talk today of good things happening for Michiganders that the governor has asked for, great, I’ll believe it when I see it — when it actually comes to fruition and then sticks,” she said.
Dr. El-Sayed said his aim in running for Senate was to hold Mr. Trump accountable, not to make deals with him.
“What I’m really focused on is standing up to this president to remind him that he is an elected president, not a king and not a tyrant,” he said. “I think it’s critical that we focus on those issues right now.”
Beyond Michigan, a larger question remains: If Ms. Whitmer runs for president in 2028, how will her cooperation with Mr. Trump play with Democratic primary voters?
But neither she nor anybody else has declared that they are running. And so far she appears to be less actively pursuing the White House than, say, Mr. Pritzker, whose fiery speech on Sunday night in New Hampshire made him the first person to earn C-SPAN’s “Campaign 2028” graphic.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Dave Philipps writes about war, the military and veterans and covers The Pentagon.
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