- Gov. Gretchen Whitmer visited President Donald Trump in the White House again Tuesday
- Whitmer said Trump agreed to provide more federal aid for region hit by ice storm last year
- Trump posted on social media he’d work with Whitmer to progress an invasive carp barrier
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met again with President Donald Trump in the White House Tuesday, lobbying him for money to keep invasive carp out of the Great Lakes, fighter jets in Macomb County and relief for storms.
It was at least her third publicized meeting with Trump since he began his second term in 2025.
Whitmer, a Democrat, said the Republican president pledged to provide more aid to northern Michigan, which was slammed by ice storms in March 2025.
More details weren’t immediately available Tuesday, nor was information about the likelihood of relief for last week’s deadly tornadoes in southwest Michigan.
According to the governor’s office, Trump agreed to reverse a Federal Emergency Management Agency decision denying Whitmer’s appeal for federal aid from last year’s ice storm.
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Whitmer press secretary Stacey Larouche said “the president agreed to deliver additional federal funding to help Michiganders with the cost of recovery efforts.”
Whitmer had initially requested federal aid in late July 2025. While Trump approved $50 million in assistance to governments and nonprofits, his administration denied help for homeowners and utilities. Whitmer appealed that partial denial in August, which was also later denied in October.
Whitmer had also requested funding to make changes to lessen the impact of a similar storm in the future.
Invasive carp barrier help
Whitmer and Trump said they would work together to resume plans to build a long-awaited series of barriers designed to prevent invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes along the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois.
“I’m working with Governor Gretchen Whitmer on trying to save The Great Lakes from the rather violent and destructive Asian Carp,” Trump said in a post on his social media site Truth Social after the meeting, and said he would bring other governors from the Great Lakes basin on board.
In January, four US senators wrote a letter to federal authorities asking them to explain why construction funding had again halted with the project reportedly under administrative review.
“We need funding released so the Army Corps can begin construction as soon as possible,” LaRouche said Whitmer told Trump.
After prior lobbying from Whitmer, last May Trump signed a memorandum meant to kickstart the building of the barriers, officially called the Brandon Road Interbasin Project.
According to the Waterways Journal, multiple construction projects began since the memorandum’s signing, but ongoing funding shortfalls indicates more federal funding is needed to complete the project as costs have risen.
Two of the four species of invasive carp that have proliferated in the Mississippi River, bighead and silver carp, have been located within 47 miles of Lake Michigan in the Des Plaines River.
In the post, Trump inaccurately claimed invasive carp were “rapidly taking over Lake Michigan, and all of the beautiful surrounds.”
While genetic material from the carp was first detected on the other side of existing barriers in 2009, neither silver nor bighead carp have been found in Lake Michigan or other Great Lakes in the 15 years since that discovery.
Little tornado news
Larouche said Whitmer provided an update to Trump about last week’s tornadoes in Cass, St. Joseph, Branch and Calhoun counties that killed four and injured 12.
The two also discussed plans to bring new F-15EX fighter jets to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.
In a surprise move last week, GOP state House Speaker Matt Hall moved to allot $152 million in state funding to build runways at base, claiming the project could fall behind schedule without an infusion of state cash.
The state has previously committed about $63 million for upgrades at the base, and Whitmer previously promised $100 million.
Congress included $20 million in a spending bill earlier this year, less than the $200 million requested by Michigan US Sens. Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin, both Democrats.
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