Gretchen Whitmer just did all of us a huge favor

D. Earl Stephens
13 April
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer stands, as U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) signs executive orders and proclamations, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 9, 2025.

“Let’s give more hard-working people a fair shot at a decent life. And let’s usher in, as President Trump says, a ‘Golden Age’ of American manufacturing.”

-Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) Wednesday spouting MAGA rhetoric before a meeting with the America-attacking Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

“She’s really done an excellent job. She’s a very good person.”

-The America-attacking Donald Trump during the meeting with Whitmer, in which he moved her around like a piece of used office furniture, before converting her into a photo/op where he once again said the 2020 election was “rigged.”

First, I want to thank Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for getting all this out of the way early before a 2028 presidential election that may or may not happen.

By doing us the courtesy of not wasting our time any longer pretending she’s anything but a complete phony we can move on to rooting for and supporting candidates who really do share our ideals, and understand the extreme danger we are in right now in America.

Because either you understand that, or you don’t. This is no time for playing cute, and screwing around in the squishy middle.

Until her embarrassing public surrender Wednesday, I actually had Whitmer pegged for possible stardom.

I believed in “Big Gretch” and wrote glowingly about her and the women in Michigan, who had played a large part in facilitating the resistance against the ghastly Trump the past seven years. Frankly, they were inspirational and made me proud to support a party that stood up for voters, and against those who facilitated violent attacks against them.

Sure it was an easy stand to take, but I appreciated their toughness, panache and zeal nonetheless. They were on the right side of the fight, and damn, I was proud to fight alongside them.

Turns out, there is nothing Whitmer will do for the good people of Michigan unless she thinks it is good for herself, and that is just terribly, terribly sad.

Her political career died an ugly death Wednesday, because she’s too damn weak, and self-centered to understand that real leaders don’t walk into enemy territory and surrender to racist tyrants, they fight them every damn step of the way.

Here’s how AP reported her self-induced kidnapping to the vile woman-abusing Trump:

“She was feet from his desk when he signed a pair of memoranda directing the Justice Department to investigate two of his critics and signed an executive order exacting retribution against a law firm whose work he opposed.”

A national Democratic strategist quoted by NBC-News put it this way:

“It is a massive indictment on Whitmer and her team’s judgment to, first, not have an answer on the tariff question and then go the White House and get absolutely played by Donald Trump to the point she is caught in the Oval Office as he signs one of his revenge and retribution executive orders and says 2020 was rigged.”

Another strategist, who admires Whitmer put it more succinctly:

“Just a f------ disaster.”

There was no damn reason for Whitmer to be within three states of the White House, yet there she was literally in the lions (er, lyin’s) den. Worse, this was not the first time she has met with this monster since he was reelected.

Watching her show so little self-respect for herself is absolutely painful. Watching her show so little respect for people like myself, who have supported her with my time treasure, and endorsement is absolutely galling.

In a feeble statement, Whitmer claimed she was brought into the Oval Office in front of the press "without any notice" and emphasized her presence was not an "endorsement of the actions taken or statements" made at that event.

Sure, OK. She just happened to be at the bank with the crook while it was being robbed …

All of this surrendering and capitulation by “marquee” Democrats points to a larger problem within the fast-fading party itself. People are sick and tired of their sick and tired act.

Either you believe what you are saying, or you don’t. Either you believe Trump is an extreme danger to our democracy, the rule of law, clean air and water, and any damn American value you tell us you care about, or you don’t.

Only roughly one in four Americans have a favorable opinion of a party that has become littered with out-of-touch “leaders” running on the old, stale fumes of recycled garbage.

From a CNN poll last month:

Democrats and Democratic-aligned independents say, 57% to 42%, that Democrats should mainly work to stop the Republican agenda, rather than working with the GOP majority to get some Democratic ideas into legislation.
The survey was taken March 6-9, days before 10 Democratic senators — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — voted with Republicans in the chamber to advance a GOP-authored spending bill to avert a government shutdown, much to the chagrin of many other Democratic lawmakers and progressive critics.
The majority’s desire to fight the GOP marks a significant change in the party’s posture from the start of Trump’s first term. A September 2017 poll found a broad 74% majority of Democrats and Democratic leaners saying their party should work with Republicans in an attempt to advance their own priorities, and just 23% advocating for a more combative approach.

They simply aren’t listening to us.

Too many Democratic leaders aren’t fighters, they are whiners, right Schumer?

Instead of standing up for Americans, they are doing nothing at all, or even worse: They are rolling over for Trump.

It’s pathetic.

Was there ever a better illustration of how little they think of us when just days after losing the most important election of our lifetimes, Joe Biden eagerly invited the America-attacker back to the White House and the scene of the January 6, 2021 crime, and in front of roaring fire flashed his toothy smile, and heartily exclaimed, “Welcome back!”

I’ll never be able to unsee that. “Welcome back.” Holy hell …

And, say, have you been reading all these stories recently about the never-ending sniping between the Clintons, Biden, Kamala Harris and Barack Obama teams during the most important election of our lifetimes?

We’re out here knocking on doors with our hair on fire, shoveling our hard-earned cash out the door and were (are) frankly terrified of what another Trump term would mean, while these inbred, lifetime campaigners were airing petty feuds behind closed doors.

The party needs a bath.

A few Democrats like Cory Booker, and Sens. Bernie Sanders and Liz Warren, Reps. Jasime Crockett, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez before him, have finally owned up to their their gross inaction, and are busy doing what they were elected for — the very least of which should be standing relentlessly against a two-bit, lying crook who sees good people on both sides of a KKK rally, and whose violent attack on our vote may have irreparably wrecked this country for good.

Democratic Party leadership is full of too many complete phonies, and the only ones who can’t seem to see this are the so-called leaders themselves.

A lot is rightfully made of Republicans’ appalling refusal to take on the odious Trump, but tell me: When are Democrats going to start taking action on their own?

Why are Schumer and Dick Durbin still leading the Democratic senate?

Unless they see a 29 percent approval rating as something to be proud of …

Ya know, what happed here in Wisconsin last week should be instructive to Democrats going forward. There are lessons to be learned.

We won a crucial Supreme Court race up here by double-digits, because instead of it being about professional politicians, the race was simply about the issues.

By electing Judge Susan Crawford, thus ensuring liberals will control this court until at least 2028, Wisconsinites by huge margins signaled they don’t want billionaires like the grotesque Elon Musk interfering with our elections.

Wisconsinites said they believe in fair political maps.

Wisconsinites said they believe in a woman’s right to choose.

In fact, the only national politician who got involved up here was the despicable Trump himself, who gave a full-throated endorsement of the race’s ultimate loser, Brad Schimel.

That terrible tandem lost by a whopping 10 points, an almost unheard of margin in this razor-close state.

Turns out, Trump’s toxic agenda is not popular here, and this vote happened BEFORE people’s life savings were battered by these destructive tariffs that Whitmer wants to politely haggle over, instead of doing everything in her power to shove in the nearest s---can.

The Democratic Party is broken, people, and it’s OK to say that.

It would be far, far worse not to.

We have the power, so we must demand change, dammit.

Unless you don’t think we’re worth it …

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here, and follow him on Bluesky here.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this piece published, The New York Times has reported this: “The day after the inauguration, Ms. Whitmer penned a handwritten letter — which has not been previously reported — congratulating Mr. Trump, saying she looked forward to working together and praising his support for the auto industry in his first address, according to a person who relayed the text of the letter. Ms. Whitmer included her cellphone number and invited Mr. Trump to call her if she could be of any help to him.”

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