President Trump is waging war against an unlikely enemy: a fish that’s threatening to destroy Michigan’s $7 billion Great Lakes economy. And in a plot twist that has social media buzzing, his newest ally in this fight is none other than Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Invasive species have long been terrorizing the Great Lakes, and Trump is standing up for Michiganders—starting with stopping the spread of Asian carp.
The destructive, 100-pound fish has traveled through the river system up to Chicago over the past century, and a Lake Michigan invasion could be imminent. Asian carp infestations are a bipartisan issue, bringing both Whitmer and Republican Rep. John James together to signal to the president that carp are a major concern for Michiganders.
At the end of 2024, the Army Corps of Engineers spearheaded a $1.2 billion carp deterrent project, constructing a barrier at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam on the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Illinois. The project was funded in part by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
One day before the project’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker paused the project, citing mistrust of the Trump administration. Just before, the administration had halted all federal grants and loans across the board to ensure the allocated funds support Trump’s agenda.
Criticism of Illinois’s decision was bipartisan—Republican U.S. Reps. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, David Joyce of Ohio, and Democratic Reps. Debbie Dingell of Michigan and Marcy Kaptur of Ohio—all disapproved of the pause, citing the project as “essential” in protecting the “multi-trillion-dollar economy it supports.”
Desperate for federal reconciliation, the crisis brought an unlikely duo to Trump’s door, with both Whitmer and Michigan Republican Speaker of the House Matt Hall making an impromptu visit to D.C. for a conversation with the president regarding the impending carp problem.
Both silver and bighead carp are just 40 miles from Lake Michigan waters, according to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. The president promised both Whitmer and Hall that preventing Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes system will be a priority for the administration.
“I want to thank you for caring so much about Michigan. We’ve been working a long time. We couldn’t get Joe Biden to do anything about either one of these issues,” Hall said to the president. “But on the Asian carp, you know, for years, when Obama was there, we could never get anyone to do anything about this, this invasive species that’s going to destroy our Great Lakes.”
Because the carp project, in particular, is largely federally funded—$226 million toward building and the long-term promise to cover 90% of the maintenance costs—Trump’s support is critical to the project’s completion.
“We’re also working on a certain fish that’s taking over a beautiful lake,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They’re very powerful fish. They jump out of the water, they jump out at the fisherman; I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Asian carp, first introduced in North America in the 1960s to help minimize pests in aquaculture, escaped farms and became pests themselves. Today, Asian carp threaten the Great Lakes—water systems that are responsible for 75,000 jobs, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The fish can grow to up to 100 pounds, jump 10 feet in the air, and female carp can lay up to 1 million eggs in a year. Just 20 Asian carp could wreak havoc on the Great Lakes’ fish population and subsequent environments.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for Michigan’s economy, which has long been floundering under Whitmer’s watch. With the state already battling the second-highest unemployment rate in the nation (5.4% as of February), according to Bridge Michigan, a carp invasion could devastate its $2.3 billion recreational fishing industry.
As if being hit in the head by an airborne carp wasn’t bad enough, the fish are voracious predators of plankton—the primary food source for many native Great Lakes fish species. The loss of plankton could wipe out other fish populations, opening the door to a carp takeover.
The Great Lakes Fishery Commission “lauded” the president and his efforts, according to a press release.
“We have to save Lake Michigan,” Trump said. “We’ll have something to celebrate pretty soon.”
For Michigan’s struggling economy and the thousands whose livelihoods depend on the Great Lakes, those words might be the most important catch of the season.
Kamden Mulder is a contributing writer for Michigan Enjoyer.
