Vice President JD Vance goaded Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over Detroit‘s crime rates on Wednesday after he visited a manufacturing plant to champion President Donald Trump‘s major domestic policy bill.
“My one message to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer here in the state of Michigan is, oh come on,” Vance said as a rally crowd booed at the mention of the governor. “My one message to Gretchen Whitmer is, look, the city of Detroit, we know has got some serious crime problems.”
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“And we know that it’s the people in Detroit who suffer the most when crime is allowed to run rampant all over city streets,” Vance continued. “Gretchen, we are happy to send the National Guard to Detroit, Michigan. All you got to do is ask.”
Detroit’s crime rate declined in 2023 to its lowest level in 57 years, according to city statistics, but it still remains well above national rates. Of the 20 top cities with the highest homicide rates per 100,000 residents in 2024, Detroit registers at No. 6.
The vice president’s remarks follow the president’s deployment of federal law enforcement officers to Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday at the behest of Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN). Since his takeover of Washington, D.C.’s local police force last month, the Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to send in National Guard members to other Democratic-led cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia.
Vance also defended the Trump administration’s right to deploy the National Guard to other cities during an appearance in Wisconsin last month, though he qualified that the administration wants Democratic leaders to ask for help.
“The president of the United States is not going out there forcing this on anybody, though we do think that we have the legal right to clean up America’s streets if we want to,” Vance said. “But what the president has said is, very simply, why don’t you invite us in?”
Democratic mayors and governors have largely bristled at Trump over his threats. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson rejected the idea of National Guard members coming to the city. Gov. JB Pritzker (D-IL), a prominent Trump foe, told CBS News that sending military members to Chicago was an “invasion.”
This week, Trump again threatened to send troops to Chicago, calling the city a “death trap,” before he left for a state visit to the United Kingdom.
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“I’m going to go to Chicago early, against Pritzker. Pritzker is nothing. If Pritzker was smart, he would say, ‘Please come in,’” Trump told reporters.
Michigan Democrats blasted Vance’s visit to the manufacturing plant as an attempt to smooth over the effects of the “big, beautiful bill.” Republicans have touted the law’s tax cuts, in particular those tailored to working-class voters, but Democrats believe the GOP is vulnerable over its reforms to Medicaid.
“Donald Trump and J.D. Vance are devastating Michigan’s economy with their chaotic tariffs and disastrous health care cuts – all to line billionaires’ pockets at the cost of working families,” said Michigan Democratic Party chairman Curtis Hertel in a statement.
“Michiganders are hurting right now, with prices going up and their livelihoods being threatened because of the Trump administration’s policies,” Hertel added. “When people show you who they are, believe them, and Trump and Vance have proven that they are self-serving, reckless, and don’t care who they hurt.”
Vance’s stop in Michigan also marked his first public comments on Charlie Kirk after he guest-hosted the Turning Point USA founder’s radio show on Monday.
The vice president credited Kirk, who was assassinated last week during an event at Utah Valley University, with galvanizing a young conservative movement that helped propel Trump and Vance to the White House.
“If you look at just the youth vote in 2024 and how much young voters shifted from Democrat to Republican, from 2020 to 2024, Charlie Kirk created a movement,” said Vance. “And that movement made Donald J. Trump the president of the United States, and it made me the vice president of the United States. I would not be here without Charlie.”
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Echoing his remarks during the Charlie Kirk Show, Vance denounced the Left for allegedly inciting political violence and defended the right to free speech in the U.S.
“I want to let you know that whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, whatever your belief is, I will fight for your right to speak your mind,” he said. “We reject political violence and we reject the crazy left-wing radicals that gunned down our friend Charlie Kirk. Let’s talk to one another and not try to shoot each other down for disagreeing.”