Trump hit pause on a Great Lakes project. Then a phone call changed the odds

An unexplained Trump administration hold on construction of a state-federal project aimed at preventing invasive carp from reaching the Great Lakes was abruptly lifted this week, hours after a call to President Donald Trump by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, reported AP.

The Army Corps halted work on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project near Joliet, Illinois, in July without giving a clear reason. The pause left officials in Illinois and Michigan searching for answers, even as environmental officials warned that invasive carp were being found dangerously close to Lake Michigan.

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That’s when Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, called Donald Trump, as per AP.

The Wednesday phone call was an unexpected intervention from Whitmer, who has forged an unusual relationship with Trump despite once being one of his strongest political opponents. Just hours after their conversation, the Army Corps lifted the stop-work order.

The episode highlights not just Whitmer’s unusual bipartisan relationship with Trump, but also how his administration operates from the top down, with direct access to the president often proving the quickest way to get things moving, as per AP report.

"Governor Whitmer spoke with President Trump today to ask him to direct the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to lift the stop-work order," Bobby Leddy, a spokesperson for Whitmer, said in a statement. "The governor underscored the urgency of the moment, noting that invasive carp were recently found just 80 miles from Lake Michigan - farther up the Illinois River than ever recorded."

Whitmer's office said that Wednesday they had been notified that work on the project could resume.

Crucial project in limbo

Illinois, Michigan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have spent years planning a gantlet of technologies in the Des Plaines River near Joliet to keep invasive carp from reaching Lake Michigan. The project has repeatedly faced uncertainty under Trump, despite his public support for it and hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding approved under President Joe Biden.

In March, Whitmer pressed Trump to release federal funding for Brandon Road. Trump soon posted on Truth Social that he was "working with Governor Gretchen Whitmer" to protect the Great Lakes from invasive carp, and the Army Corps released funding for the project's next phase the following month. The administration then issued another stop-work order in July, saying the project was undergoing an administrative review but offering little explanation.

"It's time for the Trump Administration to uphold the federal government's obligations, stop playing political games, and move this project forward," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a July 30 statement.

The urgency increased in August, when the Illinois Department of Natural Resources detected hundreds of juvenile invasive carp about 80 miles from Lake Michigan, the first time carp of that size had been found that far upstream since monitoring began in 2010.

Whitmer's relationship with Trump

Whitmer, who is term-limited and will leave office in January, has worked more closely with Trump during his second term after the two repeatedly clashed during his first. She has visited the White House to meet him and welcomed him to Michigan, at times drawing criticism from fellow Democrats for her willingness to work with the Republican president.

But even after Michigan officials were told that the stop-work order had been lifted, officials in Illinois — where the project is located — had not been informed. The communication gap raised fresh questions over whether the project would remain in limbo.

Pritzker, meanwhile, has taken a sharply different approach. He has become one of the most vocal critics of Trump among the nation’s governors as he weighs a possible run for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination to succeed him.


"Despite the Brandon Road Interbasin Project being in Illinois, the state has received no new communication from the Trump administration," Matt Hill, spokesperson for Pritzker, wrote in a statement. "You would expect if the administration really cared about protecting the Great Lakes they would notify Illinois."