Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer admitted on a fellow Democrat's podcast that President Trump secured a major military mission for her state, one she tried and failed to get done under Joe Biden.
Whitmer made the concession Thursday on "This is Gavin Newsom," the podcast hosted by the California governor who is himself a likely 2028 presidential contender. Speaking to Newsom about her approach to working across party lines, Whitmer pointed to a concrete result: 21 brand-new F-15EX Eagle II fighter jets assigned to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan under a modernization plan called Mission Next.
Fox News Digital reported Whitmer's remarks, in which the Democratic governor offered an unusually direct acknowledgment of Trump's role:
"I've gotten some really good stuff done. Honestly. I got a fighter mission at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, and I tried to get that done under the Biden administration, couldn't get over the finish line, but I got it done with him. So, that's a huge deal to Michigan."
That last line, "I got it done with him", will land differently depending on which side of the Democratic civil war you sit on. For voters in Michigan who rely on the jobs and infrastructure that come with a fighter squadron, the statement is common sense. For a Democratic base that has demanded total opposition to Trump at every turn, it amounts to a public break with party orthodoxy.
The project at the center of Whitmer's remarks is no small thing. Mission Next replaces the retiring A-10 Warthog fleet at Selfridge Air National Guard Base with 21 F-15EX Eagle II jets, the Air Force's newest and most advanced fighter platform. The plan also includes construction and infrastructure upgrades at the base, along with new jobs and training opportunities, the New York Post reported.
Trump announced the mission details in April 2025 during a speech at Selfridge, timed to mark his 100th day in office. He did not hold back on the hardware.
"Fresh off the line. That means they are brand new. They've never been anywhere. This is where they're going to be for a long time. And I saw one of them, flew over my head, and I said, 'What the h*** is that?' That plane has serious power. So, this is the best there is anywhere in the world, the F-15EX Eagle II. This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of Northern American air power."
Whitmer had lobbied for the mission during the Biden years and came up empty. The material does not detail what specific obstacles Biden's Pentagon or White House placed in her path, but Whitmer's own words leave little ambiguity about the outcome: she could not get it done under the previous administration.
That failure stands in sharper relief given the broader pattern of Democratic figures now openly questioning what the Biden White House actually accomplished, and what it left on the table.
Whitmer's willingness to work with Trump is not new, but it has grown more visible. In April 2025, she visited the White House and attended an Oval Office meeting with the president. During a press conference, she went viral for holding a folder in front of her face, a moment that drew mockery from both sides.
Days later, Whitmer addressed the incident directly. "I don't want my picture taken, that's all it was," she said. "I kind of wished I hadn't put my folder up in front of my face, but whatever. You know I was there... I just wrote a book about learning to laugh at yourself, so I'm pretty good at it. We all have our moments."
Trump, for his part, called Whitmer "a very good person" during the same meeting. And when he arrived in Michigan for the Selfridge event, AP News reported that Whitmer was the first person he greeted. Whitmer described the exchange afterward:
"I was the first one he greeted. We shook hands and he leaned in to tell me, you know, congratulations and that I was a big reason that we were making an announcement today. And I was grateful for that."
Trump went further from the stage. "She's done a very good job, frankly, and she was very much involved with the Republicans," Just The News reported Trump saying. "They worked together on saving it, and it was not easy." He then invited Whitmer onto the stage, where she thanked him directly.
Both Whitmer and Newsom agreed on the podcast that maintaining a working relationship with the president was "part of the job", a statement that sounds unremarkable in isolation but cuts against the dominant posture of their own party.
Whitmer's pragmatism sits awkwardly next to the stance taken by other prominent Democrats. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, for example, has called for Republicans to "not know a moment of peace," the Washington Examiner reported. Pritzker's combative posture, "They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have", represents the faction of the party that views any cooperation with Trump as capitulation.
Whitmer appears to have made a calculation: Michigan voted for Trump in 2024, and she governs a state whose voters chose the president over her party's nominee. She acknowledged as much on the podcast, saying she needed to "figure out how to conduct herself" after that result. She also said she knew how to work with people who were not her best friends.
That calculation carries 2028 implications. Whitmer is often mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential candidate, and her willingness to show results rather than resistance could distinguish her from rivals, or alienate the progressive base that controls primary electorates. The ongoing Michigan Democratic Senate primary already reflects the tension between progressive and establishment wings of the party in her own state.
Newsom himself faces his own political complications. The podcast host and likely 2028 contender is navigating a federal investigation that has prompted concern among Democrats about his viability as a national candidate. That Whitmer chose Newsom's show to deliver her most direct praise of Trump adds another layer to an already complicated intraparty dynamic.
The Trump White House wasted no time framing Whitmer's remarks as validation. White House spokeswoman Olivia Wales told Fox News Digital on Friday:
"While Joe Biden's weak policies neglected our military, President Trump saved Selfridge Air National Guard Base, a crucial pillar of North American air defense; rebuilt our military; and restored readiness and lethality to our US Armed Forces."
Wales continued: "With President Trump as commander in chief, the United States Military will continue to lead the world in power, prestige, and might. President Trump proudly won the state of Michigan in 2024, and will continue to deliver on his promises for all Michiganders."
Earlier this year, White House spokesperson Kush Desai had drawn a broader contrast, pointing to a local steel manufacturing company's announcement that it would invest $43.4 million to expand its Michigan operations. Desai told Fox News Digital that "Democrats like Gretchen Whitmer spent decades talking about fixing broken trade deals and creating manufacturing jobs here in America for American workers." His conclusion: "President Trump is actually delivering, and he's delivering with the same agenda of tariffs, deregulation."
Former President Biden's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Whitmer's remarks. The silence speaks for itself, though not as loudly as Whitmer's own words.
Cross-party cooperation is not unheard of in American politics. Just weeks ago, twenty House Republicans broke ranks to pass a pro-union labor bill over the objections of their own leadership. Politicians on both sides occasionally find that results matter more than tribal loyalty. But for a Democratic Party still debating whether to resist or adapt, Whitmer's public praise of Trump on a rival's podcast is harder to dismiss as a one-off.
When a Democratic governor goes on another Democrat's podcast and says the Republican president got done what the last Democratic president could not, that is not bipartisanship for show. That is an admission about who delivered, and who didn't.