In your wildest imagination can you see soon-to-be President Donald Trump breaking bread with “that woman from Michigan?’” Let the laughter begin but then brace yourself.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is trying to work her magic to see if that can happen and no this is not a joke.
Anyone who has watched these two go at each other over the years starting with COVID and moving up through the presidential election, knows that there is no love lost between them. However the governor is on a mission to patch things up with the new/ old president for the good of everyone involved.
Actually the out-reach signals were there for everyone to see just after the election.
While other Democratic governors were putting the wagons in a circle to battle Mr. Trump, there was Gov. Whitmer graciously declining the offer to join the fight. Instead she was saying stuff like, “I’ve worked with him before and will try to work with him again.”
And while other D’s had a field day dissing some of Mr. Trump’s cabinet appointments, she kept her powder dry.
During all this nobody bothered to take a deep dive into what was really going on. Turns out, lots of stuff.
However during a sit down chat over the holidays on Michigan Public TV’s Evening with the Governor she laid it all out.
The opening inquiry went like this.
“If president-elect Trump was sitting here would you say to him let’s bury our differences, patch them up and for the good of the nation let’s lay the foundation between you and I for a good working relationship?”
As the question unfolded, the governor nodded her head and even broke a little smile and reveals, “that is how I feel.”
And then it was off to the races as she put some political meat on those bones.
“My job is to work with him and do everything I can to find common ground ... I understand there will be areas when we won’t be able to find common ground but I’m hopeful that there are many where we can,” she explains the motivation for a peace treaty.
Look at it folks, this governor has two more years to write her history and being rather astute about how the game is played, she knows at some point Michigan will need some form of assistance from the White House and maybe vice versa especially when it comes to the auto industry or the Great Lakes.
And if the door to the Oval Office is closed to her, that impacts the citizens of Michigan and of course getting stuff done for her constituents is job one. Call it practical politics.
But how is she trying to pull this off?
Turns out she is using back channels in D.C. to send out these feelers although she was reluctant at first to confirm this when asked about it.
With a sly grin she volleyed, “if I told you about it would it still be a back channel signal?” and then she laughs while confessing, “”I’m going to do everything I can to help the State of Michigan (and) I want to work with anyone who wants to do that.”
So just to put a ribbon on the exchange, the governor was advised that all this would be reported that she was using these back channels to start a new relationship with Mr. Trump and it “would not be inaccurate” if that story was printed.
She pauses for just a moment and says, “Yes.” It would not be wrong.
But why the pause? “I was thinking about saying “maybe” but I said yes instead” as she smiles again and there was one other smile in the room too.
