STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — On the eve of the first debate in Michigan’s marquee Senate race, Mike Rogers released an ad saying “we need to end this tariff war now.”

Two days later, he toured a manufacturing facility to tout the benefits it had seen from President Donald Trump’s tariff policy. That night, at a barn party in Highland, he was asked whether the tariffs on Canada had been a net positive or a net negative for Michigan.

“I think overall positive,” he responded.

The mixed messages capture the tightrope that Rogers, the Republican nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, has walked when it comes to Trump. In this battleground state, the president is a complicated figure, and some of his policies have proved unpopular.

Rogers, for his part, has argued that his approach to Trump is determined on a case-by-case basis. “If it’s good for Michigan, I’ll be fighting for it. If it’s bad for Michigan, I’ll be working with the president and my friends in the Senate to say we’ve got to change whatever that might be,” he told reporters outside the barn party.

It’s an approach shaped by Michigan’s purple politics. In 2024, Trump carried the state by 1.4 percentage points. That same year, Rogers lost his Senate race to then-Rep. Elissa Slotkin by 0.34 percentage points.

Trump’s standing in the state has been underwater since then. The president’s approval rating among likely Michigan voters is about 42%, according to a poll conducted by Mitchell Research & Communications for local television stations.

That’s what makes a possible Trump visit so tricky for Rogers.

Last week, Trump told reporters, “I’m going to Michigan in about a week and a half.” Days later, asked about a presidential visit, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., said to “possibly keep the 25th open.” No visit has been formally announced.

Trump may show up. Rogers may not.

In the spin room after last week’s debate, MS NOW asked Rogers whether he wanted Trump to campaign in Michigan and whether he would appear with him. He answered only the first question.

“Yes, he’d be welcome — I’d love to have him talk to those people and get them fired up,” Rogers said, after crediting tariffs with helping cherry farmers and automakers and praising Trump’s no-tax-on-tips policy.

When he was pressed on whether he would appear alongside Trump, Rogers moved on to the next question. He attended a rally with the president in July.

Even Rogers’ supporters are split on whether Trump should come.

Bob Hoffman, the farmer who hosted the barn party on his property, said a Trump visit wouldn’t help.

“[Trump’s] approval rating is so low, Mike Rogers has to, I believe, emphasize that he represents the state of Michigan first, and maybe the Republican Party second,” Hoffman said. He wants Rogers to separate himself from the president on tariffs, fuel costs and immigration.

Linda Brandis, a 66-year-old resident of Commerce Township, sees it differently. She described Rogers as “cautious” in his relationship with the president and “his own man.” But on whether the two should campaign together, she said “it always helps.”

“There is nothing like a Trump rally. It is just pure love,” Brandis said. “So yeah, I think it can’t hurt.”

Abdul El-Sayed, Rogers’ Democratic opponent, agrees that Trump should come. He just thinks it will help him, not Rogers.

El-Sayed’s “it shouldn’t be this hard” bus tour took him to Escanaba, in the conservative Upper Peninsula, where he taunted the president at a town hall.

“Donald is thinking about coming to Michigan,” he told the crowd. “Donald is going to come and remind everybody that Donald is on the ballot. Donald, come. Tell everybody in Michigan that you are on the ballot. Your s––– tariff war is on the ballot. Your dumbass war with Iran is on the ballot. Your Medicaid cuts are on the ballot.”

Rogers, meanwhile, has picked his spots to break with Trump. At the debate, Rogers said that efforts from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota this year were “probably not appropriate.” During that crackdown, federal agents killed two civilians. A day after the debate, at the barn party, Rogers said he disagreed with Trump’s deal to obtain diesel from Russia.

But for every step away from Trump, Rogers has taken another back toward him.

The day after the debate, Trump slammed El-Sayed on Truth Social, referring to him by his middle name, Mohamed, and labeling him “a Jihadist lunatic who hates our Country.” Democrats accused the president of using Islamophobic language against El-Sayed, who would be the first Muslim member of the Senate if elected.

Asked by MS NOW if the rhetoric had gone too far, Rogers stopped short of criticizing it.

“I can’t pick the guy’s middle name — that’s his legal middle name,” he said. “My argument is maybe his middle name, we should change it to ‘that big-government socialist.’”

Pressed further, he said, “I won’t speak for the president,” then pivoted to his efforts to court Muslim voters.

It wasn’t the first time Rogers had given Trump the benefit of the doubt.

This summer, after Trump gave a speech on election integrity, Rogers wrote on X that he was “thankful for President Trump’s commitment to transparency.” That was a notable statement from Rogers. He is a former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and he strongly pushed back on Trump’s false claims of election fraud after the 2020 election.

The change of tune reflects a basic reality for Rogers. When he left Congress in 2015, Trump had not yet launched his first presidential campaign. Now, Trump is the face of the Republican Party.

Outside the barn party, Rogers was asked by MS NOW what had changed most since he was last in Washington. He didn’t mention Trump. Instead, he cited the cybersecurity experience he had gained and the increased partisanship in Washington.

When he was pressed on Trump, he got back on the tightrope by contrasting himself with Michigan’s two Democratic senators.

“I think we can go back and have a conversation with the president about what Michigan needs — right now, we don’t have that,” Rogers said. “We have two people that get up every morning and stab them in the eye, and can’t wait to do it.”

“My argument is, why don’t we send one person back to say, ‘hey, Mr. President, this is bad for us, this is really good for us, can you do this?” he added. “We don’t have that now. We haven’t had it in over a quarter century. So my argument is, this is the chance.”

Then he looked past Trump altogether.

“We only — he’s going to be there two years, and then he’s gone,” Rogers said. “This is a six-year term.”

Peggy Helman contributed to this report.

The post ‘He’s going to be there 2 years, and then he’s gone’: Mike Rogers’ Trump tightrope appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.