President Donald Trump held a rally in Michigan on Tuesday to commemorate the first 100 days of his second term, the largest public event since returning to the White House, a state particularly shocked by his huge trade tariffs and aggressive attitude towards Canada.
Trump is visiting the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in the afternoon to announce the news along with Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. He is expected to speak at a rally at Macomb Community College north of Detroit, which allowed him to revel in leading the sprint to subvert government and social, political and foreign policy norms.
His Republican administration's strict immigration policies have been arrested for illegal crossing along the U.S.-Mexico border, and the administration, led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk, shocked Washington. Its protectionist import tax on U.S. trading partners also attempted to reorder the global economy that the United States had struggled to build and nurture in the decades after World War II.
Trump also advocates expansionism that swept the United States and refused to rule out military intervention in Greenland and Panama, suggesting that U.S. developers could help transform the war-torn Gaza Strip into a Riviera-like resort, and even suggest annexation of Canada.
“I run this country and the world,” Trump told Atlantic in an interview. He told him the first 100 days, “I think what I'm doing is exactly what I'm running for.”
That doesn't mean it's very popular.
Only ten in 10 Americans agree on how Trump handles the presidency, and he rated the economy and trade below that. Additionally, 46% of adults in the U.S. agree with Trump’s immigration policy, and about half of Americans say he “goes too far” when it comes to illegally deporting immigrants living in the country.
Meanwhile, only 33% of Americans have a favorable view of Musk, Tesla CEO and the world's wealthiest, and about half of them believe that the government cannot cut the government's labor force in terms of hard work.
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“The most important thing is, and most importantly, it has caused a lot of losses to the fundamentals of the government,” said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of Public Services Partnership, a nonprofit dedicated to better government.
“There are very interesting to the idea of trying to improve governments more effectively, and what we're seeing is the most significant disruption to the core capabilities of core governments in history,” Stier noted.
Michigan is one of the battlefields Trump stands out from the Democratic column. But this is also deeply affected by his tariffs, including new imported cars and auto parts.
Michigan's unemployment rate has increased for three consecutive months, including a 1.3% increase in March to 5.5%, according to state data. This is the highest in the United States, far exceeding the national average of 4.2%.
Automaker Stellantis stopped production at its Canadian and Mexican factories and temporarily laid off 900 U.S. employees after Trump announced 25% tariffs on imported vehicles. Industry groups have separately urged the White House to cancel tariff plans on imported auto parts, warning that doing so will raise car prices and could trigger “launchs and bankruptcy.”
This seems to make the country a strange choice for Trump’s own achievements.
“I’m not sure if he’s interested in doing smart things,” said Bernie porn, a long-time Michigan poll. “He's what I'm talking about on the face of the president. 'This is what I'm going to do.'”
Trump also visited Selfridge, which was founded on the 1917 World War I and Warren's Community College campus. Both are near the Canadian border and are also home to many people with deep business and personal connections to the country.
“Michigan always feels very, very positive about Canada,” the poller said, and his voters “reacted well to what he did.”
Typically, the president uses the 100-day mark to conduct multiple meetings. But Trump only stopped in Michigan before posting his opening address at the University of Alabama on Thursday.
Administration officials say the Republican president is most effective at the White House almost every day. Indeed, Trump’s Macomb Community College speech will be one of the few large in-person crowds he has talked about since inauguration day on January 20.
Apart from visiting the hurricane damage in North Carolina and the wildfires in Southern California and the wildfires in Las Vegas, which included brief chats with gamblers on the casino floor, Trump’s early months had few features.
Most weekends are spent in Florida golf or attending sports events, including the Super Bowl and Daytona 500, and Trump enjoys the crowd but doesn't talk to them. Limited travel to supporters was a significant departure from his first semester, when Trump held major rallies in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky before celebrating 100 days with a Pennsylvania speech in 2017.
Similarly, Whitmer will become Whitmer, often referred to as a future presidential candidate. Whitmer, a former Trump critic, recently tried to find a common stance with the president, visited him at the White House and discussed Selfridge's future in particular.
Whitmer is concerned about the A-10 aircraft stationed on the base being eliminated, although Trump recently said he hopes to keep Selfridge “open, strong, and thriving.”
Michigan pollsters pointed out that Whitmer continued to criticize Trump for his key issues such as the environment. But, he added, “I think she is aware that the guy is in the office and that it may make sense and that the level of working with him might be with him on those things they agree with.”
& Copy 2025 Canadian Press
