WASHINGTON — Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer backed the idea behind President Trump’s sweeping reciprocal tariffs Wednesday morning, but argued that levies should be “used like a scalpel.”
Whitmer, seen by many as a possible contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, told an audience in the nation’s capital that “I understand the motivation behind the tariffs,” the application of which has sent the stock market into free fall.
“Here’s where President Trump and I do agree,” the 53-year-old said. “We do need to make more stuff in America. More cars and chips. More steel and ships. We do need fair trade.”
While Whitmer — whose campaign efforts for Kamala Harris in 2024 included a cringe-inducing video of a “Dorito Communion” — said the tariff approach has to be “done right,” she also admitted under questioning from journalist Gretchen Carlson that “I haven’t really thought about” how her duties would be different from Trump’s.
“I don’t know how I would’ve enacted them differently,” the governor said. “I haven’t really thought about that. What I have thought about is that tariffs need to be used like a scalpel.”
Trump’s all-encompassing reciprocal tariffs “couldn’t have come at a worse time,” Whitmer argued, citing inflation and higher costs of living.
“You can’t just pull out the tariff hammer and swing at every problem without a clear, defined end goal,” she said, pitching the solution as a bipartisan project spanning several presidential terms that brings “friends” together against our adversaries to bring manufacturing back to America.
Trump, 78, imposed a 10% base tariff at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and hit “worst-offender” countries with higher rates at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, including a whopping 104% total tariff on China after Beijing retaliated against the US.
The White House said Tuesday that Trump had directed his economic team to pursue negotiations with foreign countries to get optimal, “tailor-made” trade deals for the US.
Whitmer’s bipartisan messaging is in line with her approach post-Harris loss.
The Michigan governor, who is term-limited and will leave office in January 2027, has been coy about her political plans, but has said the country is ready for a female president.
“Lots of men have run for president and lost. And no one concludes that people don’t want a male president,” she said in January.
“So for anyone to state that it’s about gender probably betrays that they’ve got their own agenda at stake, as opposed to really looking at what happened in this last election.”
