By Joey Cappelletti
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.
The Army Corps had halted work without explanation on the Brandon Road Interbasin Project near Joliet, Illinois, in July, leaving officials in Illinois and Michigan struggling for answers about the pause even as environmental officials warned that invasive carp were being found alarmingly close to Lake Michigan.
Then Whitmer, a Democrat, called Trump.
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The Wednesday phone call was a surprising intervention by the Democratic governor, who has developed an unusual relationship with a president who was once one of her fiercest political foes. Hours after the call, the stop-work order was lifted.
The episode underscores not only the unusual cross-party relationship Whitmer has cultivated with Trump, but also the top-down and relationship-driven nature of his administration — where direct phone calls and displays of deference to the president remain the best way to get things done.
“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. The White House referred questions to the Army Corps of Engineers, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A pivotal project in flux under Trump
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 unique relationship with Trump
Whitmer, who is term-limited and set to leave office in January, has operated more freely with Trump during his second term after the two sparred repeatedly during his first. She has traveled to the White House to meet with him and welcomed him to Michigan, drawing criticism at times from fellow Democrats for her willingness to work with the Republican president.
Yet even after Michigan officials received word that the stop-work order had been lifted, officials in Illinois — where the project is located — had not been notified of the decision, raising questions about whether the project could remain in flux.
In stark contrast to Whitmer, Pritzker has emerged as one of Trump’s most outspoken critics among the nation’s governors as he considers mounting a bid for the 2028 Democratic nomination to replace 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.”
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