Every person and every institution that has knuckled under Donald Trump’s extortionate abuses of power has had a compelling reason to do so. Even the most craven kowtowers, the corporate law-firm partners, have stories they tell themselves about why the calls they made were right when they made them.

A faithless president can do a lot of damage to a company or a university or a state if he’s willing to violate his oath of office, and even if Supreme Court ultimately voids the action, and the administration honors the order (two big ifs) litigation is expensive, and the intermediate harm may be crippling.

The line between harm mitigation and greed can be blurry when the interests at stake are private. Law firms protecting their mergers and acquisitions portfolios. Research universities shielding their multi-billion dollar investments.

But every one of these institutions had reasons. And as Trump reneges, or comes back for more, or the damage they’ve done to their reputations grows untenable, these private rationales become public pleas for understanding from the scornful public.

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GRIST FOR THE MILLS

Consider the contrast between Janet Mills, the governor of Maine, and Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan. Both were vulnerable to Trump’s wrath, but they navigated the challenge differently.

Mills stood for principle. When Trump threatened to defund her state schools unless she treated his executive order aimed at banning transgender sports participation, she told Trump, “see you in court.”

And so she did. Barely. Last week, the Trump administration restored the funding and Maine withdrew its lawsuit.

“I told him I’d see him in court. Well we did see him in court, and we won,” Mills said.

Whitmer, by contrast, has played by Trump’s rules, in which each state must fend for itself, and the optimal maneuver is to supplicate. She’s sought to fend off tyranny through flattery and by making herself useful to him. First there was this infamous episode…

Then, more recently, she greeted him upon his arrival in Michigan, and appeared with him at an event announcing that the state’s Selfridge air base would get new fighter jets and refueling tankers, with attendant jobs and dollars.

In all this, many people who once viewed her as a future president have lost confidence in her judgment.

She thus appeared on Pod Save America to explain herself, and was at pains to square her view that the second Trump presidency is a constitutional emergency with her willingness to provide him cover.

“It is not easy to navigate these times,” she said. “But one of the things that I've learned is I've got to put the people of Michigan first over my my self-interest, over maybe what people assume are going to be my political interests. The people in Michigan come first. I took an oath to them.”

Followup question: “Have you asked the president to stop targeting people and institutions in your state?”

“You know, I have talked to the president about tariffs, which obviously we don't agree on. I have talked to the president about Asian carp that pose a real threat to the Great Lakes. I have talked to the president about ice storm victims in northern Michigan, who I'm hoping we can get some help from FEMA to support. I have not had that direct conversation on this subject yet, but I'm not afraid to do that.”

Not exactly “see you in court.”

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WHITMER?! HARDLY KNEW ‘ER!

For a somewhat more sympathetic read on Whitmer’s dilemma, Jonathan Cohn has got you covered.

I think better rules of thumb for vulnerable Democratic governors would look something like:...