Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer accidentally generated a viral moment in her quest to avoid getting her photo taken during a trip to the White House.
Speaking to Detroit business leaders on Monday, the Democratic governor addressed a New York Times photo of her covering her face with a folder as she stood on the sidelines of the Oval Office while President Donald Trump held a press conference.
Whitmer made light of the now-viral photo by once again covering her face with a folder when asked about her trip to Washington.
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“Someone asked me, ‘What was going through your mind at that moment?’ And it was, ‘I don’t want my picture taken.’ That’s all it was,” she said.
“I kind of wish I hadn’t put my folder up in front of my face, but whatever,” she added. “I just wrote a book about learning to laugh at yourself, so I’m pretty good at it. And we all have our moments.”
Whitmer got scorched by Democrats for appearing at the Oval Office as Trump signed a flurry of executive orders, including one that targeted a former Homeland Security official who defended the integrity of the 2020 presidential election from the president’s false claims of fraud.
The governor was at the White House to discuss Michigan issues, including federal funding for the Selfridge Air National Guard Base and an invasive species of fish threatening Lake Michigan.
One Democratic operative earlier told NBC News that Trump “absolutely played” the two-term Michigan governor, who is seen as a possible 2028 contender.
“Whitmer hurt her candidacy today,” another Democrat said after the meeting. “She looked and sounded nervous in the Oval Office. That visual will stick. So will the image of Trump praising her as he signed executive orders targeting his critics.”
A day after her trip to Washington, Whitmer told reporters that she thought she was walking into a private meeting with Trump but ended up in a press conference instead.
“I put out a statement right as soon as I got out of the Oval Office that said my presence was not an endorsement of any of the actions he took or the comments that were made,” Whitmer said. “I was going in for a meeting, and they walked me into a press conference.”
Still, the governor said her meeting with Trump was “the farthest we’ve gotten in terms of a public commitment” for issues affecting Michigan.
“It was not where I wanted to be, or planned to be, or would have liked to have been. I disagreed with a lot of the stuff that was said and the actions that were taken, but I stayed in the room because I needed to make the case for Michigan, and that’s my job,” she said.
