Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan had an opportunity this weekend to say whether he thinks President Donald Trump’s threats of jailing and executing political opponents has gone too far.
He passed.
Appearing on WXYZ’s Spotlight on the News over the weekend, Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent, was asked about Trump accusing Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, of “seditious behavior.” Trump suggested their actions could be “punishable by DEATH” after they released a video reminding military members they can refuse illegal orders.
Instead of answering, Duggan dodged the question, as he often has when asked about Trump’s dangerous behavior and policies.
“I’ve stayed out of these national debates,” Duggan said. “I’m not going to get involved in the national debate.”
Host Chuck Stokes quickly moved on, promising to come back with “some more positive things.”
The exchange has become all too common in the local media. Rather than press Duggan on his position, Stokes let the mayor dodge a question that is important for many voters as they continue to ask: Who is Mike Duggan now and where does he stand on many issues? The former Democrat is trying to appeal to independents and Trump supporters, and he has refused to touch controversial issues.
Asked why Duggan wouldn’t respond to Stokes, campaign spokesperson Andrea Bitley tells Metro Times that the mayor “answered the question clearly.”
“He is running for state office, not federal office, and has made it his practice in this campaign to stick to state issues,” Bitley says.
But Trump’s rhetoric and policies have become state issues. Trump has ordered federal immigration raids that rely on state cooperation, pushed to deploy U.S. troops into American cities, and threatened to withhold funding to some states. His administration’s policies deal with everything from health care access and public safety to immigration enforcement.
Last week, Trump’s dangerous rhetoric drew widespread condemnation, even from members of his own party. Slotkin reportedly received a bomb threat last week.
So far, Duggan isn’t willing to talk about it.
In posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump called Slotkin and five other Democratic lawmakers “traitors” and wrote that their video urging troops to refuse unlawful orders amounted to “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a supporter’s call to “HANG THEM,” prompting a wave of threats against the lawmakers and forcing some to adopt 24/7 security.
On Tuesday, Slotkin said the FBI has signaled it has opened what appears to be an investigation into her and others who released the video.
Slotkin, appearing on ABC’s This Week, called Trump’s language “a tool of fear” and said the goal was to intimidate critics and distract from other damaging news.
Even some Republicans denounced Trump. Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said calling opponents “traitors” and threatening the death penalty was “reckless, inappropriate, irresponsible” and warned it could inspire unstable people to commit violence. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime Trump ally and Republican from South Carolina, called the president’s comments “over the top.”
Republican Rep. Michael McCaul told ABC he didn’t “speak for the president in terms of hanging members of Congress” and urged everyone to “tone down the rhetoric.”
While some Republicans who support Trump were willing to say his threats crossed a line, Duggan has chosen to remain silent.
Instead, he touts his ability to “bring Democrats and Republicans together.”
Here’s the exchange on WXYZ:
Stokes: “We now have a controversy with the president now about sedition and making charges against Democratic politicians, one of our own Senator Slotkin … that it could lead to sedition and could lead to hangings and shooting politicians.”
Duggan: “Yeah, so the reason that we have been successful is, I’m the mayor of Detroit, and I am dealing with issues that relate to Detroiters. I’ve stayed out of these national debates, and I think Detroit has done extremely well by paying attention to what we’re doing in the city, and so I’m not going to get involved in the national debate.”
Stokes didn’t press him. There was no follow-up or questions about whether Duggan thought threatening lawmakers with death was wrong.
That has become a pattern in Duggan’s 2026 governor’s race. He casts himself as a post-partisan problem-solver while dodging questions about Trump’s most extreme actions and rhetoric, even when the target is a fellow Michigan officeholder.
Duggan’s silence stands in stark contrast to the mayor that Detroiters have seen for most of the last decade.
For nearly 40 years in public life, Duggan said he was a proud Democrat. He campaigned for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, he mocked Trump’s many bankruptcies and called him “the most phony party nominee” he’d ever seen. When Trump falsely claimed voter fraud in Detroit in 2020, Duggan called the allegations “utter nonsense” and “a real threat to everything we believe in … that everybody’s vote counts the same.”
He praised Biden and Harris as “real partners” who helped Detroit recover and said “the best thing that happened in Detroit was when Donald Trump left office.”
Now, Duggan insists he hasn’t changed his views “on any issue,” just his party label.
“I haven’t changed any positions, other than that I think the toxic relationship between the two parties is badly damaging the state and we need a different approach to get Republicans and Democrats to work together,” Duggan told conservative Detroit News columnist Nolan Finley this summer.
But his public posture has shifted. He’s far more likely these days to attack Democrats than Trump or Republicans, accusing his former party of caring only about hating the GOP and Trump and claiming “people are fed up with this Democratic Party in Michigan.” On social media and in TV interviews, he repeatedly says both parties are broken, and he is above partisan bickering.
“I don’t answer to party bosses. I answer to you,” Duggan’s campaign page tweeted last week.
Duggan’s statements come as his campaign relies heavily on a coalition of Republican donors and Trump supporters. As Metro Times previously reported, Duggan is raising millions of dollars from the Republican establishment and Trump megadonors, such as billionaire Roger Penske, former Michigan GOP chair Ron Weiser, charter school mogul J.C. Huizenga, and other heavyweights who have poured money into Trump, the GOP, and conservative causes for years. Many have given Duggan the maximum contribution, and family members and business associates have also donated.
In October, a Duggan fundraiser was co-hosted by controversial millionaire Anthony Soave, who donated $100,000 to a Donald Trump political action committee and has been linked to multiple corruption scandals involving city contracts.
Duggan’s team openly boasts that he’s “pulling unprecedented support from Democrats and Republicans,” citing polling that shows him closing in on Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James in a three-way race. If the election were held today, a recent internal survey from Duggan’s campaign suggested he would garner 26%, while Benson would get 30%, and James 29%.
Duggan’s refusal to condemn Trump for threatening the lives of Slotkin and others is a sharp departure from his past criticism of the president. Either Duggan has changed his position on Trump, or he’s willing to tolerate the threats and bigotry of the administration.
One of them is political theater.
In ordinary times, dodging a question on a popular TV news show might not be a big deal. But the sitting president is telling the country that a Michigan senator and her colleagues are “traitors” whose actions are “punishable by DEATH,” while they report an alarming increase in threats.
Duggan says he wants to leave the “us vs. them” politics behind him, but many voters also want to know whether a would-be governor believes it’s acceptable for a president to suggest that his critics are “traitors” who deserve death.
Duggan chose to duck on live TV when given the chance to condemn Trump’s dangerous rhetoric.
The real question in this campaign may not be whether he’s a Democrat, Republican, or independent. It’s whether Michigan voters will accept a governor who won’t say where he stands when it really matters.