Donald Trump went all in for Mike Rogers in Michigan.
Then the polls started sliding, and the Republican Senate nominee started sweating.
So Rogers pulled up a barstool and filmed a video that should have Trump’s phone ringing off the hook.
Mike Rogers Grabs a Labatt and Picks a Fight
Former US Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), the Republican nominee for Senate in Michigan, posted a 30-second campaign video to X on October 7, 2026.
He shot it in a bar. He talked about drinking a Labatt and watching the Red Wings, and he told viewers it doesn’t get any more Michigan than that.
Mediaite pointed out that InBev, the parent company of Anheuser-Busch, owns Labatt, a Canadian beer. Folks who remember the Bud Light mess can take it from there.
But the beer turned out to be the least surprising part.
“Prices are too high and Canada is not our enemy,” Rogers wrote in the post carrying the video. On camera, he went a step further. “We need to end this tariff war, now,” he said.
Rogers never once said the name Donald Trump in the clip, according to Mediaite. He didn’t need to. Every voter from Monroe to Marquette knows whose tariffs set off the fight with Canada.
He wrapped up by pledging to bring both parties together to lower costs. He also claimed El-Sayed supports a tax increase.
Rogers Once Called These Same Tariffs a Win
And here’s where the whole thing gets clumsy.
On October 24, 2025, Rogers posted a very different message on X. “Orders are up and fairness for Michigan workers is restored,” he wrote, handing the credit to President Trump’s tariffs.
And he didn’t stop there. He told followers that automakers were “THANKING him for it!” The all-caps came straight from Rogers.
Critics didn’t waste time. Commenters pulled that old post back into circulation, and a Community Note on X attached it right to his new video, Mediaite reported.
But the 2025 post wasn’t some stray comment from a different era. In September 2026, Rogers told the Daily Caller News Foundation he backed Trump’s use of tariffs, while adding that he didn’t see them as the answer to every trade dispute, according to BizPac Review.
He said Michigan needed a Senator ready to “work with President Trump to broker a trade deal with Canada.”
The El-Sayed campaign, citing Politico, also flagged Rogers describing the Canada tariffs as “necessary” around that same stretch.
So the man who called the policy necessary in September wants it gone in October. Right now. Over a beer.
The Poll Numbers Behind a Sudden Change of Heart
Nothing about Canada changed between those two months. The polling did.
Trump endorsed Rogers in July 2025, a move the Daily Caller said effectively cleared the Republican field. Trump had backed him in 2024 too, when Rogers fell short by fewer than 20,000 votes. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and the National Republican Senatorial Committee lined up behind him as well.
Plenty of Republicans figured El-Sayed would make a soft target. He runs as a progressive, and his own campaign touts a promise to pass Medicare for All, a scheme that would put Washington, DC bureaucrats between Michigan patients and their doctors.
And yet the surveys moved the wrong way for Rogers. A Susquehanna Polling and Research survey put El-Sayed ahead 46% to 39% among likely voters, according to The National News Desk. An earlier Fox News poll had Rogers up four points. The Washington Examiner reported that the RealClearPolitics average showed El-Sayed ahead by less than a single point.
El-Sayed pounced on the reversal. “Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike,” he wrote on X. He accused Rogers of having “cheerled this tariff war from the beginning” and said Rogers only changed course because his “poll numbers are in free fall.”
But El-Sayed didn’t stop at one jab. “Not a serious person,” he added.
Funny thing, hearing a Medicare for All candidate lecture anybody about serious economics. But on this one point, the Democrat landed a punch Rogers handed him on a silver platter.
Trump Built His Tariffs as Leverage, Not a One-Month Fix
Trump never sold tariffs as a painless overnight cure. He sold them as leverage against trading partners that spent decades getting the better end of every deal while American factory towns emptied out.
Canada’s retaliation actually fits that picture. Brian Clow, a former senior Canadian adviser on trade, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Ottawa built its counter-tariffs to make the fight painful enough that Washington would see a reason to return to the table, BizPac Review reported. That’s a country hunting for a deal.
None of that erases the strain on Michigan. Canada bought $23.2 billion worth of Michigan goods in 2025, roughly 39% of the state’s goods exports, according to the same report. Trump has also said he would raise tariffs on Canadian autos to 50% from 25% and slap a 50% tariff on auto parts starting in January.
Those sectors will feel it. And Michigan voters know it.
But a candidate can argue for a tougher, smarter deal without pretending he never cheered the strategy in the first place. Rogers skipped that route. He grabbed a prop beer, dropped the President’s name, and borrowed his opponent’s talking points.
That’s an old habit in establishment Republican circles. Ride Trump’s endorsement through the primary. Collect the support of his voters. Then, when the general election tightens, edge away from him one policy at a time and hope nobody digs up the old posts.
Somebody always digs up the old posts.
And it’s hard to see this stopping at tariffs. A candidate who abandons one Trump policy over a rough poll has already shown how he handles pressure. Another rough poll could bring more distance on energy, the border, or anything else that tests poorly in the Detroit suburbs.
Rogers has spent his campaign insisting he’ll work hand in hand with President Trump. His October 7 video makes that promise a lot harder to take at face value.
Michigan voters have now met both versions of Mike Rogers. Only one of them earned Trump’s endorsement.
“Michigan Republican Flip-Flops to Bash Trump’s Tariffs: ‘Prices Are Too High and Canada Is Not Our Enemy’,” Mediaite
“Canada hits back at Trump tariffs as trade war threatens key midterm battlegrounds,” BizPac Review
“Trump Clears Senate Field For GOP In Michigan As Dems Fight Messy Primary,” Daily Caller (as cited by AOL)
“Poll: Senate hopeful El-Sayed takes 7-point lead over Republican opponent,” The National News Desk
“Abdul el Sayed outperforms Mike Rogers in latest Michigan Senate poll,” Washington Examiner
“ICYMI: Mike Rogers Calls Trump’s Trade War ‘Necessary’ As Costs Climb for Michiganders,” Abdul El-Sayed for Senate
“Prices are too high and Canada is not our enemy,” Mike Rogers on X
“Orders are up and fairness for Michigan workers is restored,” Mike Rogers on X (as cited by Mediaite)
“Must have had one too many of those LaBatts, Mike,” Abdul El-Sayed on X (as cited by Mediaite)