HARRISON TOWNSHIP — President Donald Trump announced April 29 that the Selfridge Air National Guard Base would receive 21 F-15EX fighter jets, solidifying its future in Michigan.

“This is where they’re going to be for a long time,” Trump said, touting them as “brand new.”

With a phaseout of the A-10 aircraft at Selfridge underway, Michigan political leaders from both parties have lobbied the federal government for a new fighter mission to protect the future of the base, fearing it might close without a replacement fighter mission, taking nearly $1 billion in economic fortune from its home base of Macomb County and the rest of the state with it.

“I’ve come in person to lay to rest any doubts about Selfridge,” Trump said to applause.

Major General Paul Rogers, adjutant general of the Michigan National Guard, said, “it was a very real possibility” that no replacement for the A-10 was going to be announced. He credited Whitmer for securing a new mission and said he expects the new planes to start arriving in 2028.

Trump landed at Selfridge aboard Air Force One and was greeted on the tarmac by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The two leaders shared a brief embrace.

“He leaned and he said you know, we’re here because of the work that you did,” Whitmer told the Free Press in an interview after the announcement.

A new fighter mission has topped Whitmer’s federal policy wish list. After she met with Trump to discuss it, she became the national face of the fraught politics facing Democrats trying to engage with the Trump administration when she briefly obscured her face during an Oval Office news conference during which the president praised her. But Trump also hinted he would help the governor deliver on Selfridge.

In his remarks, Trump praised Whitmer for bringing the Selfridge issue to his attention and working on the issue on a bipartisan basis. “That’s the reason she came to see me by the way — to save Selfridge,” Trump said.

Whitmer’s office estimates that the base has an $850 million impact on Michigan’s economy and supports about 30,000 jobs in the state.

Whitmer spoke briefly at the event, saying she was grateful for the president’s announcement. “It’s crucial for the Michigan economy, for our men and women here,” she said.

The announcement was lauded by Michigan leaders, including U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Twp., who called it a “major win for our service members, Michigan families, and our national defense,” in a statement. U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, said on X: “President Donald Trump keeps his promises, standing strong for Selfridge, Macomb, our troops, Michigan, and America.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, applauded the announcement after what he described as years of work and advocacy. “Selfridge has the capabilities and the generational expertise needed to keep our military ready and our nation safe,” he said in a statement.

The F-15EX is manufactured by the Boeing Co., which bills it as “the future of combat” on its website, touting features like an ability to shoot from a further range than any other fighter in the U.S. Air Force’s arsenal. 

As of last year, just three Air National Guard units were slated to get F-15 EXs, and Selfridge was not among them.

Trump spoke in a hangar flanked by two A-10 Thunderbolt “Warthog” aircraft, the attack planes that are being withdrawn from U.S. military service by 2029. Both planes had Trump’s name stenciled under the cockpit. One had a red “45” under the nose, the other a “47,” representing the numbers associated with Trump’s two presidencies.

About 300 troops from the base, many of them full-time staff members of the Selfridge 127th Wing, gathered on bleachers inside the hangar to hear Trump — almost all wearing their brown and green “operational camouflage pattern” uniforms.

Rogers said the base’s 21 A-10s will be replaced by 21 new F-15EX fighters. But in a development announced earlier, the base’s eight KC-135 refueling tanker aircraft will be replaced by 12 new KC-46 tankers, meaning the overall footprint of the base will be larger.

Free Press staff writer Clara Hendrickson, Washington Correspondent Todd Spangler and State Government & Politics Editor Emily Lawler contributed to this report.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected].