There was a time, not long ago, that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was a strong possibility to be the face of the Democratic Party and possibly its 2028 front-runner, but that might have all just been erased.

According to the Daily Mail, Whitmer, a radical progressive by most measures, was slammed by her colleagues and Democratic constituents this week after appearing in a series of White House photos with President Donald Trump.

The photos, which appeared to show her laughing and smiling, didn't go over well with the TDS-ridden Democrats who follow her and subscribe to her progressive politics.

Making matters worse for Whitmer, President Trump even praised her, saying she's done a "good job" as governor.

What happened?

Whitmer's moment was the second time she's visited Trump's White House, and her cheerful appearance in the photos triggered many Democrats who were reportedly appalled by her smiling in the photos.

The Daily Mail noted:

The Michigan Democrat was meeting with the president regarding issues in her home state, including an ongoing ice storm in the north, investments in the Selfridge Air National Guard Base outside of Detroit and an invasive fish in the Great Lakes.

Gretchen Whitmer angers Democrats, suffers 'huge embarrassment' with Trump meeting at White House
One Democratic operative called Whitmer’s Trump photo-op a 'disaster' as backlash erupts inside her own partyhttps://t.co/rk0oW2DcI5 pic.twitter.com/bN834mYDzB

— Michigan News Source (@MINewsSource) April 11, 2025

Whitmer's team, painfully aware of how the optics affected her image, insisted after the event that the Michigan governor was "blindsided" by the invitation to the Oval Office.

"The governor was surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during President Trump's press conference without any notice of the subject matter,' a spokesperson for the governor said in a statement, adding that it wasn't an "endorsement" of the president's politics.

"Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event," Whitmer's team added.

Social media reacts

Users across social media weighed in on the photos that angered her fellow Democrats, with many confused as to how she could be smiling in the photos in the Oval Office.

"Yeah, I'm trying to figure this one out, but I'm really stumped," one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, "She's doing what Newsome is doing. she'll be running in 2028."

Only time will tell how much the images hurt her 2028 prospects.