Ruffling Feathers

Mike Pence Motorcade Drives on Michigan Island Where Cars Are Banned

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) called the eight-car motorcade “disgusting.”

An eight-vehicle motorcade for Vice President Mike Pence drove onto Michigan’s Mackinac Island on Saturday, where cars have been generally banned for over a century. The motorcade angered locals, as well as observers on social media, including Michigan Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who called the the long line of black SUVs “disgusting” on Twitter. “I am in such disbelief that this was allowed to happen,” Tlaib tweeted on Sunday. “This Administration doesn't care about the law (you know, the U.S. Constitution), so it shouldn't surprise me so much that they don't care about our history or traditions.”

The island has banned cars since 1898, when the village council enacted a ban on all “horseless carriages” over concerns they would scare their horses, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. Ever since, the vehicle ban has been integral to the island’s charm. Pence was on the island, which is home to about 500 people, to attend the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference. No other vice president has visited Mackinac, and President Gerald Ford is the only U.S. president to visit the island. During Ford’s visit in 1975, he and the first lady traveled by horse-drawn carriage.