New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill condemns Trump’s 'militia' tactics and economic agenda

WASHINGTON, DC: Two days before her inauguration, New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill went on the offensive against the Trump administration during an appearance on ABC’s 'This Week' on Sunday, January 18.

The Democrat labeled President Donald Trump’s economic agenda as “madness” and accused him of using federal immigration agents as a personal “militia” to provoke unrest.

Sherrill, who won her race by 14 points, framed her incoming governorship as a counterweight to the White House. “We take oaths to a constitution, not a king,” she said in a clip aired during the broadcast, defining her platform around “liberty and prosperity.”

Mikie Sherrill condemns Trump administration's economic priorities

Sherrill trained her criticism on the administration’s economic priorities, including Trump’s push to acquire Greenland and his tariff threats against European allies.

She argued that those moves would directly hurt residents of her state, which she said already sends “$70 billion more in federal taxes to the government than we receive back.”

“To continue to punish the people of New Jersey… to continue to attack opportunity, innovation, schools, jobs, cost of living, is madness,” Sherrill said.

She added that no resident wakes up hoping the president “dumps billions of dollars into buying Greenland” while grocery prices continue to rise, calling it a trade “nobody wants.”

Mikie Sherrill accuses the president of building 'militia'

Addressing the unrest in Minneapolis, Sherrill focused on the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She disputed claims that demonstrators were driving the violence, saying, “The protesters have been peaceful, but ICE hasn’t been.”

She described agents as “out of control proto-military agents” who were “busting through windows” and deploying tear gas.

“I think the president’s trying to incite the protesters so that he can take America’s eyes off the fact that his militia that he’s building around this country is actually attacking American citizens,” she said.

Troops policing their own countrymen

A Navy veteran who served for nearly a decade, Sherrill said that she was alarmed by Trump’s repeated references to invoking the 'Insurrection Act'. She warned that the president seemed “to be trying to incite an insurrection so he can then put troops on the street.”

She said service members were questioning “how long they can hold out until they find themselves policing their own countrymen,” arguing that those were choices the military should not face. “The only insurrections that are happening are the ones the president himself is inciting,” she claimed.

Working class realignment favors Democrats

Sherrill attributed her victory to what she called a “realignment” among working-class voters across urban, suburban, and rural communities centered on affordability. She said that many voters who supported Trump in 2024 shifted to her after costs failed to come down.

“He seems to be making a ton of money and yet my costs keep going up,” Sherrill said, summarizing what she heard on the campaign trail. She urged Democrats to emphasize “nuts and bolts” governance and to listen to voters rather than insist the economy is strong.