# Trump's treatment of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 29, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587 "2020-03-29T14:40:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/1 "2020-03-29T14:40:19Z")
I hope Dopers have not missed Trump’s infantile, misogynistic treatment of Gretchen Whitmer, who he can’t seem to muster enough respect for to call her by name. Here are some quotes: > [@](#): > > “I say, ‘Mike (Pence, the vice president) … don’t call the woman in Michigan,” Trump said during his news conference Friday. “You know what I say? If they don’t treat you right, don’t call.” > [@](#): > > “The governor of Michigan, she’s not stepping up…I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government. She doesn’t get it done and we send her a lot.” > [@](#): > > I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! So, when he \*does \*invoke her name, he refers to her as “Half-Whitmer”. And the “blaming everyone for her own ineptitude”…man does that sound an accurate description of, I dunno, someone else. This man is the leader of the United States??? mmm ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/2 "2020-03-29T15:03:51Z")
Mitch Albom covers this nicely today in today’s Detroit Free Press. I hope my father, a man who loves Mitch as much as he loves Trump, reads the whole column. > **[Mitch Albom: Hey, President Trump: Her name is Gretchen Whitmer](https://www.freep.com/story/sports/columnists/mitch-albom/2020/03/29/mitch-albom-president-donald-trump-gretchen-whitmer/2933518001/)** > > She has a name. It is not "the woman." It is Gretchen Whitmer. And she's doing her job to protect Michiganders from the deadly coronavirus pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/3 "2020-03-29T15:18:47Z")
I thinks he’s about to ruthlessly punish the states that hate him, using government response funding, and delays etc. Very ‘Quid pro quo’ almost. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/4 "2020-03-29T15:28:10Z")
Quid pro corona? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/5 "2020-03-29T15:35:44Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I thinks he’s about to ruthlessly punish the states that hate him, using government response funding, and delays etc. > Very ‘Quid pro quo’ almost. From the Clusterfuck thread: > [@The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/41970): > > While states like Maine and Colorado got a small fraction of the requested supplies, Florida received [300% of what they asked fo](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/desperate-for-medical-equipment-states-encounter-a-beleaguered-national-stockpile/2020/03/28/1f4f9a0a-6f82-11ea-aa80-c2470c6b2034_story.html)r. > \* > “Florida has been an exception in its dealings with the stockpile: The state submitted a request on March 11 for 430,000 surgical masks, 180,000 N95 respirators, 82,000 face shields and 238,000 gloves, among other supplies — and received a shipment with everything three days later, according to figures from the state’s Division of Emergency Management. It received an identical shipment on March 23, according to the division, and is awaiting a third.”\* ---
**Author:** ![racepug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@racepug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racepug)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/6 "2020-03-29T15:45:42Z")
The (ill-behaved, bratty) Toddler-in-Chief. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/7 "2020-03-29T16:36:19Z")
Isn’t that pretty much how he behaved to Puerto Rico after the hurricanes? So… pretty much par for the course ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/8 "2020-03-29T16:37:22Z")
How does anyone not yet understand that Trump will leverage this pandemic crisis in every possible way to “win” his reelection? He will use his 500 billion dollar slush fund to shower money on favored constituents/organizations/states and extract assurances that they will reinvest those funds in his reelection campaign through super PACs. He will withhold aid to his perceived enemies, force governors to compete for scarce resources, grant privileged status to those who suck his ass and deny necessities to those who govern according to sanity as a way of punishing them. He is cruel, vindictive, immoral, unethical, petty, small, uneducated, IQ-challenged with the attention span of a soiled diaper – and let me say cruel again, to give this characteristic the priority it deserves. He will kill whomever he perceives as an enemy if he can, if he can get away with it: Immigrants, refugees, prison inmates, the poor, the homeless, liberals and Democrats. He won’t mind if some conservatives and Republicans die along with them, so long as it mostly kills the people he wants dead. His Republican cohorts will protect him and let him get away with it in the hope they will avoid discovery and prosecution for their own criminal conduct. This is who is in charge now. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/9 "2020-03-29T16:56:32Z")
Hm let’s see, there are 200,000 projected deaths on tap from a deadly virus which Trump did not take seriously, but tried to downplay instead, for the optics. Governors look around, see the national defense failure and get critical. The response is “half-Witmer”. Uh, ever heard the one about glass houses, buddy? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/10 "2020-03-29T18:36:47Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > So… pretty much par for the course The only way that dungheap reaches par is by cheating. In his entire life, he has never followed accepted rules of behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Lancia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lancia/32/17174_2.png) [@Lancia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lancia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/11 "2020-03-29T18:53:38Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > How does anyone not yet understand that Trump will leverage this pandemic crisis in every possible way to “win” his reelection? > > He will use his 500 billion dollar slush fund to shower money on favored constituents/organizations/states and extract assurances that they will reinvest those funds in his reelection campaign through super PACs. > > He will withhold aid to his perceived enemies, force governors to compete for scarce resources, grant privileged status to those who suck his ass and deny necessities to those who govern according to sanity as a way of punishing them. > > He is cruel, vindictive, immoral, unethical, petty, small, uneducated, IQ-challenged with the attention span of a soiled diaper – and let me say cruel again, to give this characteristic the priority it deserves. He will kill whomever he perceives as an enemy if he can, if he can get away with it: Immigrants, refugees, prison inmates, the poor, the homeless, liberals and Democrats. He won’t mind if some conservatives and Republicans die along with them, so long as it mostly kills the people he wants dead. His Republican cohorts will protect him and let him get away with it in the hope they will avoid discovery and prosecution for their own criminal conduct. > > This is who is in charge now. Agree with all of this. But… why Michigan? Its a pretty critical swing state and he only just barely won it in 2016. Yes, he’s vindictive and cruel and only gives a shit about himself. So to that end he should be shitting on California or another solidly blue state and not some state that has a very real chance of contributing to his electoral loss. I thought the standard MO, even for him, was to pander to swing states. Maybe it’s as simple as stupidity. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/12 "2020-03-29T18:56:12Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > Agree with all of this. But… why Michigan? Its a pretty critical swing state and he only just barely won it in 2016. Yes, he’s vindictive and cruel and only gives a shit about himself. So to that end he should be shitting on California or another solidly blue state and not some state that has a very real chance of contributing to his electoral loss. I thought the standard MO, even for him, was to pander to swing states. > > Maybe it’s as simple as stupidity. My guess is he figures Michigan’s gonna be hit pretty hard by covid, so instead of risking any blame falling on him, he’s already setting up whitmer as incompetent and the only one at fault for the massive amount of sickness, deaths and job loss there. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/13 "2020-03-29T19:06:27Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > Agree with all of this. But… why Michigan? Its a pretty critical swing state and he only just barely won it in 2016. Yes, he’s vindictive and cruel and only gives a shit about himself. So to that end he should be shitting on California or another solidly blue state and not some state that has a very real chance of contributing to his electoral loss. I thought the standard MO, even for him, was to pander to swing states. > > Maybe it’s as simple as stupidity. I think it’s down to two things. First, the easy one: He can’t stand strong women who stand up to him. Governor Whitmer embodies that. He just can’t help belittling her. Second, he’s a world class bigot. Blacks live in Michigan. They are going to turn out in 2020 in far greater numbers than they did in 2016. He’s lost Michigan if they do and I suspect his internal polling already shows that. So now, like **Happy Lendervedder** says, his strategy is to try and make Governor Whitmer look like she is failing her state, and hope it damps down black turnout and increases rural white turnout. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/14 "2020-03-29T19:14:38Z")
If I believed in such things, I’d swear that it’s the beginning of the Apocalypse. It’s the perfect alignment of an amoral, narcissistic egomaniac and a pandemic. Until someone has the balls to remove this fucker from office, or the Pubs decide that they really can’t stomach any more of his behavior, we can look forward to things getting much, much worse as he laughs while America burns. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/15 "2020-03-29T19:28:22Z")
Agreed, **Chefguy**. At first, he did what he always does, which is to try to minimize and/or deny reality. That was to the great detriment of our country, affecting our ability to blunt the spread of the virus. But then others instructed him in how he can use this crisis to his advantage. We are in a much more a perilous place now. It’s the thing I think most people consistently underestimate in him: The pure malevolence of his being. I am not religious, but I know quintessential evil when I see it. He gets his kicks from watching people suffer and squirm. People are either useful to him or they are not. He views them through no other lens. If you are not useful to him, he has fun humiliating or debasing you. He doesn’t mind if you die, either. His inherent vindictiveness guides every move he makes. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/16 "2020-03-29T19:49:49Z")
> [@Lancia](#): > > Agree with all of this. But… why Michigan? Its a pretty critical swing state and he only just barely won it in 2016. Yes, he’s vindictive and cruel and only gives a shit about himself. So to that end he should be shitting on California or another solidly blue state and not some state that has a very real chance of contributing to his electoral loss. I thought the standard MO, even for him, was to pander to swing states. > > Maybe it’s as simple as stupidity. Whitmer has been critical of Trump since early on in this crisis. That’s all it takes for him to blindly attack and belittle like a 10-year-old who has not yet reached any level of maturity. Also, she is a woman. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/17 "2020-03-29T19:55:07Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > If I believed in such things, I’d swear that it’s the beginning of the Apocalypse. It’s the perfect alignment of an amoral, narcissistic egomaniac and a pandemic. Until someone has the balls to remove this fucker from office, or the Pubs decide that they really can’t stomach any more of his behavior, we can look forward to things getting much, much worse as he laughs while America burns. Even now, Republicans are seriously touting the idea that it would be OK to let a bunch of Americans die, as long as Republicans get to stay in power. This is who they are. They will never remove Trump. They are all in on the Authoritarian dictatorship train. It’s not that they “don’t have the balls”. It’s that they approve of the insults, the childishness, the cruelty and the incompetence. It’s actually their platform. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/18 "2020-03-29T20:10:21Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > It’s not that they “don’t have the balls”. [Senator Brown disagrees.](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/opinion/trump-senate-acquittal-impeachment.html) ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/19 "2020-03-29T20:45:33Z")
Why isn’t the press constantly banging on the drum that the nation’s special ‘infectious disease preparedness’ crew, specialists just for such things as a pandemic, was one of the first departments he closed and defunded? Shouldn’t that be repeated in EVERY news broadcast of grim death numbers? ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2020, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587/20 "2020-03-29T21:16:56Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > If I believed in such things, I’d swear that it’s the beginning of the Apocalypse. This cartoonist sees it with more of an [Old Testament feel](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sMLQZNQUX6E/XnTF8ltEK-I/AAAAAAAAFvQ/_ypZb-WRUZExvbGWHBgfSaIR1ZQmBeVwQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Consult%2BExodus.jpg). > [@](#): > > It’s the perfect alignment of an amoral, narcissistic egomaniac and a pandemic. Until someone has the balls to remove this fucker from office, or the Pubs decide that they really can’t stomach any more of his behavior, we can look forward to things getting much, much worse as he laughs while America burns. I fear you are absolutley correct. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trumps-treatment-of-michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer/850587.md?page=2)