Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has spent the last month cozying up to Donald Trump—but the president is still considering pardoning her attempted kidnappers.
During a press conference Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he’d considered pardoning the nine men convicted of charges related to a conspiracy to kidnap Whitmer in 2020, in an attempt to liberate the state from her Covid-19 safety policies.
“I’m gonna look at it. I will take a look at it. It’s been brought to my attention,” Trump said. “I did watch the trial. It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job, I’ll be honest to you. It looked to me like some people said stupid things, you know? They were drinking, and I think they said stupid things.”
Trump insisted that he’d heard that question from “both sides, actually.” Earlier this week, the Department of Justice’s new pardon attorney Ed Martin Jr. said that he would give the case a “hard look,” comparing the convictions to those of the January 6 insurrectionists Trump pardoned upon entering office.
It should be particularly unsurprising that Trump would consider pardoning those accused in the plot; he called the scandal a “fake deal” in 2022. Whitmer even blamed Trump’s incendiary rhetoric for giving “comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division.”
But in recent weeks, Whitmer has become a surprising defender of the president’s disastrous tariff policy, and in doing so, kneecapped any chance she had to be a Democratic presidential nominee in 2028. Whitmer even appeared for a photo-op in the Oval Office—seemingly against her will—where she stood awkwardly behind the president as he signed an executive order asking the Justice Department to investigate two former White House aides for treason.
During an address at the Council of Foreign Relations in April, Whitmer said she and Trump agreed on tariffs as a way to bolster domestic manufacturing. “I understand the motivation behind the tariffs, and I can tell you, here’s where President Trump and I do agree. We do need to make more stuff in America—more cars and chips, more steel and ships. We do need fair trade,” she said. “We should be able to celebrate good policy no matter where it comes from, and also criticize bad policy no matter where it comes from.”
But Trump’s stop-and-start economic policies have yet to yield positive results, as CEOs warn that rising prices are on the horizon and Wall Street has adopted a new term for Trump’s cowardly negotiations.
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