Vance makes offer to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: Want the National Guard in Detroit?

HOWELL, Mich. — Vice President JD Vance offered to ship National Guard troops to Detroit during a Wednesday rally at a Livingston County stamping plant.

"Gretchen, we are happy to send the National Guard to Detroit, Michigan," Vance said, referencing Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Vance added: "Part of making this country work for you all is making sure you’re safe in your communities and safe in your streets.”

Detroit had the second-highest violent crime rate among major U.S. cities in 2024. It ranked behind only Memphis, which is expected to receive National Guard troops in the coming weeks after President Donald Trump signed an order directing the move Monday.

Asked about troops potentially coming to Detroit, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Duggan previously pointed out that violent crime has declined in recent years, including to the lowest number of homicides in 60 years.

“In 2025, Detroit is seeing the fewest homicides, shootings, and carjackings it has in more than 50 years," said John Roach, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Duggan.

Roach did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Vance's proposal to send the National Guard to the city.

Whitmer's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Vance's remarks.

The National Guard came almost two weeks after Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Rogers of White Lake called on Detroit's mayor to ask President Donald Trump for federal help to "Make Detroit Safe Again."

"It's about time that they acknowledge that Detroit needs them, too," said Michelle Davis, a Hatch worker who lives in Owosso, about the National Guard. She said she last visited Detroit in April to see an AC/DC rock concert and was concerned about the number of homeless people living there.

The vice president's comments came before a crowd of hundreds at a metal stamping plant in Livingston County, which was closed for the day for Vance's visit, about a week after the assassination of conservative activist and Trump administration ally Charlie Kirk.

Vance credited Kirk with creating a "movement" that led to both Vance and Trump's election. "An assassin gunned him down for daring to say things that the assassin thought were wrong or shouldn't be said," Vance said of Kirk.

The vice president was a close friend of 31-year-old Kirk, the founder of the conservative political organization Turning Point USA. On Monday, the vice president hosted Kirk’s radio show in a sign of support, and last week he transported Kirk’s body home from Utah to Arizona aboard Air Force Two.

In addition to memorializing Kirk, Vance used the trip to Michigan to promote the sweeping domestic policy and tax cut package passed by Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. The vice president's remarks followed a tour of a Hatch Stamping Co. plant.

Michigan U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined Vance on the tour and gave remarks introducing the vice president before his speech.

Roughly 200 people gathered to hear Vance speak in the cavernous factory floor, squeezed together next to robots, forklifts and other machinery.

Barrett, asked if the Vance visit would help his 2026 reelection chances in mid-Michigan's competitive 7th District, said it "absolutely" would.

"It shows the commitment that this administration has to the men and women in Michigan, specifically in my district, but across the state and across the country," he told reporters. "Michigan is really representative of the types of folks that we're trying to really help with the working families tax cut."

Republicans on Capitol Hill, including House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, have tried since returning from a summer recess to rebrand their legislative package. Though it is officially called the One Big Beautiful Act, some GOP members have begun referring to it as the "Working Families Tax Cut Act."

The Democrats' national U.S. House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, denounced Vance's visit to Michigan in a statement.

“JD Vance is parachuting in to lie to Michiganders about Tom Barrett’s toxic agenda, because Barrett can’t defend giving tax breaks to billionaires and backing reckless tariffs at Michigan families’ expense," DCCC spokesperson Katie Smith said.

"Thanks to Barrett and Vance, Michiganders are losing their health care, facing layoffs at their manufacturing jobs, and paying higher prices everywhere from the grocery store to their electricity bills," Smith said, adding that voters would reject Barrett in 2026.

The manufacturing plant visit comes as Trump has used an emergency power to slap higher tariffs on products from a wide-ranging group of countries, from allies such as Canada and Mexico to adversaries such as China. The threat that higher tariffs could lead to higher prices on products consumers buy has worried businesses and some residents.

Brad Rhodes, a 32-year-old Hatch manufacturing technician who services robots, said he has mixed feelings about tariffs: “I’m on the fence,” he said.

Higher tariffs on Canadian goods sometimes mean delays in getting needed parts for the stamping plant, Rhodes said. But if the government raises enough money from tariffs to scrap income taxes, it would be worth it, he said.

At the site of Vance's Howell rally, Darlene Rosati, a 59-year-old interior designer from Pinckney, Michigan, said Kirk’s death motivated her to attend.

Rosati read Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy” and, as a survivor of a fentanyl addiction, connected with him. She had not heard of Kirk until his assassination, but said as a Christian, his death affected her deeply.

Rosati said she hopes Vance will give a message “that we can’t give up” during his Wednesday speech. She said violence is not acceptable and that adults must provide an example to children by not speaking badly about each other.

“If stuff like that happens, we’re basically silencing both sides,” Rhodes said of political violence, adding that he wants Americans with different political views to disagree peacefully.

“We should be able to talk,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody should be killed for speaking their opinion,” added Maya Wilson, a 21-year-old manufacturing associate at Hatch.

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