The governor of Colorado is a Democrat who leads a solidly blue state, but he has made numerous gestures of support for President Donald Trump while offering empty justifications for doing so.
His selective approval of the new administration has baffled many Democrats. Some ascribe it to his penchant for taking Libertarian or even starkly conservative positions. Whatever the explanation, his behavior helps legitimize Trump’s agenda, which poses unprecedented threats to the rights and well-being of Colorado residents.
The instances of Polis ingratiating himself with Trump are so abundant, it’s hard to keep track. It started inauspiciously, when Polis cheered Trump’s appointment of health care conspiracist and all-purpose weirdo Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Many experts view Kennedy as a danger to health not just in America but across the globe, yet in a bizarre post on X Polis declared that Kennedy “will help make America healthy again.”
Since the November election Polis has made several cringey attempts to be buddies with Elon Musk, shadow president and Trump megadonor, such as when he endorsed Musk’s social media platform, X, as a communication tool for state leaders, even as the site has become a cesspool of conspiracy theories and far-right extremism under Musk’s leadership.
During his State of the State address to the Legislature this month, Polis welcomed major elements of Trump’s mass deportation plan, even though it’s indelibly tainted by racism and the threat that countless undocumented Coloradans could be rounded up in detention camps.
This week Polis joined red-state governors in ordering flags to be raised in honor of Trump’s inauguration, interrupting a 30-day, half-staff protocol for mourning former President Jimmy Carter.
Worst of all, Polis traveled to Washington to attend Trump’s inauguration. In announcing the trip, Polis seemed to suggest that as chair of the bipartisan National Governors Association, he was expected to show up. But his primary allegiance is to Coloradans, whose interests should have taken priority before he honored Trump with his presence.
Throughout the presidential campaign, many Democrats — including former President Joe Biden and presidential candidate and former Vice President Kamala Harris, for whom Polis served as a campaign surrogate — correctly warned that Trump posed an existential threat to the republic.
Trump has only substantiated that warning since the election, as he has sought to install democracy-hating ultra-loyalists in top posts and granted clemency to insurrectionists.
Polis’ indulgence of Trump masquerades as pragmatic politics, but it’s the policy version of “very fine people on both sides.”
He is relying on traditional methods of political engagement. “For every 10 things he does that I disagree with, he’ll probably do one or two things that I agree with,” he told The Colorado Sun. This made sense when there were two parties that shared at least some foundational values and goals. But the United States no longer has that. Polis is occupying ground he purports to be common but from which MAGA long ago withdrew. The movement’s values are strictly incompatible with democracy, free elections, constitutional order and a diverse society.
Colorado, of course, must continue to work with federal agencies on highway funding, higher education and many other routine or administrative matters. What’s objectionable is Polis’ public and unnecessary concessions to Trump. Whatever immediate advantages he might earn for the state through such posturing is far outweighed by the damage Trumpism is certain to inflict.
In a year or two, when the scale of Trumpist horrors is sure to be apparent, Polis might regret being known to have coddled the man responsible.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.