Gretchen Whitmer: I want to find ‘common ground’ with Donald Trump

• Whitmer spoke rates with Trump this weekend and said she intends to continue the dialogue
• The Democratic Governor is clashing with the Republican President, but says that ‘her task’ is to find ‘common ground’.
• Whitmer also praised Republican House speaker Matt Hall to propose a plan to repair Michigan’s roads

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she is optimistic about working with President Donald Trump and Michigan Republicans and offers a veiled criticism of legislators who have not offered solutions for traffic finance.

Whitmer missed the Michigan Democratic Party Convention to eat alongside Trump in the White House on Saturday at a reception with the National Governor’s Association.

Under the topics of the conversation with Trump and his cabinet members, Whitmer said: proposed rates; The possibility of a jet -hunter mission on Selfridge Air National Guard -based and staff at the Nieuwe Gordie Howe International Bridge to Windsor.

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She said she is planning to continue the dialogue with Trump in the White House.

“If you are not in the room and you are not part of the conversation, you cannot assume that your priorities will be achieved,” Whitmer told Bridge Michigan in a Sunday interview.

“That’s why I always show up, regardless of who’s in the White House. I think it is important to appear, and that is my job as a governor. “

Whitmer told Bridge that she did not speak with Trump about ‘one project, necessarily’. Both Detroit News And Free press The governor who said they discussed the economic development in the Mundy Township of Genesee County, where state officials have approved $ 250 million to prepare a megasite for advanced production.

Some liberals have expressed disappointment that Whitmer no longer vocal criticized Trump’s flurry of executive actions during his first month back in the White House.

Whitmer told Bridge that “I know there will be times when we are not on the same page and that we are at odds”, but said she is more interested in fighting Trump than to fight him.

“If I can find a common basis, I will do that,” she said.

Whitmer spoke with bridge days in front of her that she is planned to hold her sixth state of the state speech at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

The reconciling tone is a shift for the Governor, who clashed with Trump during his first term. He called her ‘that woman from Michigan’, criticized her COVID-19 Pandemic reaction and agreed to the hymns of his followers that she had to be imprisoned.

Whitmer had previously said that Trump was ‘complicit’ in a right -wing militia plot to kidnap it by heating extremism. She wrote in the Atlantic Ocean That she and her family ‘a wave of cruel attacks’ were confronted when he publicly attacked her.

Earlier in the week Trump Whitmer again at the Bipartisan Council of Governors, a federal body that advises agencies on national security issues.

Whitmer also praised Bridge for the willingness of the Republican House Speaker Matt Hall to negotiate a long-term financing plan for Michigan roads.

“I finally have a legislative leader who said that he is serious here to do something here,” said Whitmer about Hall, promised to negotiate to see if they can reach a workable compromise.

A 45-cent gas tax increase proposed in Whitmer’s first, but never left the starting line in the office. In 2020, she unilaterally spent $ 3.5 billion in national debt to cover road repairs. That money is almost gone.

At the end of last year, Hall and House Republicans proposed a road financing proposal and Whitmer recently gave her own blueprint of $ 3 billion for road funds, although it missed a number of important details.

After two years of Democrats, Whitmer’s comments came with full control over the state government, which could have given its party a broad latitude to make a road financing plan.

No plan was ever seriously entertained by legislators and Whitmer did not make his own suggestions.

“There are only two people who have had the guts and the brain to set out a plan,” said Whitmer. “To be honest, the speaker is Matt Hall and me.”

Hall in turn said that he has a “good relationship” with Whitmer and the governor has always been available to him when he contacted.

Yet Whitmer has called on new motivation not to make a deal not to timing, not the leaders who are in charge.

“It is very clear that we are near the financing cliff,” said Whitmer. “More legislators are really starting to appreciate … that we all have a duty to solve the problem.”

There is a considerable distance between their two plans.

Whitmer is looking for tax increases for companies and marijana retailers, while Hall would use existing income, including the emptying of a fund defended by Whitmer to lure large-scale projects to Michigan.