HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
In a moment sure to be archived under “Nope, not today”, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer inadvertently pioneered a new political survival tactic: The Binder Shield—the ancient art of blocking your face with office supplies when caught in the wilds of an unscheduled Oval Office press conference.
The 2028 presidential hopeful had come to D.C. to discuss boring, essential things like Michigan’s ice storms and tariffs. But before she could say “Great Lakes,” she was whisked into the Trump Show for the episode “Let’s Sign Some Orders and Blame the Deep State.”
There she stood—“glumly,” as the New York Times kindly put it—while the president monologued like a man who thinks executive orders are collectible baseball cards. Cameras flashed. Whitmer flinched. Then came the moment: face half-obscured by binders, she stared into the middle distance like someone stuck in an elevator with a karaoke machine playing YMCA on loop.
Her team moved faster than a campaign intern at free pizza hour. “The governor was surprised to be brought into the Oval Office without notice,” her spokesperson told CNN, “and her presence is not an endorsement of… well, any of it.”
Oddly, Trump offered warm words: “We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan—great state—and she’s done an excellent job, very good person.” This from the man who, during the pandemic, accused her of doing little but whining and once called her “that woman from Michigan” while right-wing extremists were busy plotting to kidnap her.
Speaking later at a Michigan college event, Whitmer clarified her position: “Not my scene, not my script, not where I wanted to be. But I stayed to make the case for Michigan—that’s my job.”
Trump, of course, took the chance to praise Whitmer as a “very good person” and a “great governor” from the “great state of Michigan.” This is interesting, considering just a few years ago, he publicly lambasted her as “that woman” who dared to blame the federal government during a pandemic—and who was later the target of a literal kidnapping plot by people who took his rhetoric a little too seriously.
Speaking later at a college in Michigan, Whitmer offered a polite-but-pointed “hard pass” on the whole ordeal. “Not my scene, not my script, not where I wanted to be,” she said. “But I stayed in the room to advocate for Michigan. That’s the job.”
Meanwhile, critics—primarily online but increasingly meme-equipped—focused less on policy and more on her well-timed Binder Shield technique. One tweet read, “That’s not just a binder; that’s emotional armour.”
