Trump marks his first 100 days in office with a rally in Michigan, a state rocked by his tariffs
President Donald Trump speaks as he welcomes the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles NFL football team to the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2025-04-29T11:01:34Z
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — President data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump">Donald Trump is holding data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-michigan-100-days-26ae89a509ba7c6b58587f14e987368e">a rally in Michigan on Tuesday to mark data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/politics/trumps-first-100-days-steamrolling-government-strong-arming-allies-igniting-trade-wars-000001965daeda12a1b77fee99900000">the first 100 days of his second term, staging his largest public event since returning to the White House in a state that has been especially rocked by his data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/tariffs-timeline-trade-war-trump-canada-mexico-china-a9d714eea677488ef9397547d838dbd0">steep trade tariffs and data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/how-canada-could-become-us-state-42360e10ded96c0046fd11eaaf55ab88">combative attitude toward Canada.
Trump is making an afternoon visit to Selfridge Air National Guard Base for an announcement alongside Democratic Michigan Gov. data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/gretchen-whitmer">Gretchen Whitmer. He’s expected to speak at a rally at Macomb Community College, north of Detroit, allowing him to revel in data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-100-days-promises-inflation-tariffs-deportations-970c837dada26ad5f6baaa6019131cf5">leading a sprint to upend government and social, political and foreign policy norms.
His Republican administration’s data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-immigration-enforcement-deportation-public-polling-df7d0d35dfa031e1444bfa9e9e0b13bd">strict immigration polices have sent arrests for illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/immigration-border-arrests-trump-biden-52f82acf0899e88bcaea167ea21d2f61">plummeting, and data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/trump-100-days-doge-00000196772ddab7a3bfff2f0ea20000">government-slashing efforts led by billionaire adviser data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/elon-musk">Elon Musk have shaken Washington to its core. Its protectionist import taxes imposed on America’s trade partners have also sought to reorder a global economy that the U.S. had painstakingly data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-great-depression-smoot-hawley-tariffs-8c21caad30378a28a0798069585d5d9b">built and nurtured in the decades after World War II.
Trump has also championed sweeping U.S. expansionism, refusing to rule out military intervention in data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-offshore-drilling-gulf-of-america-fa66f8d072eb39c00a8128a8941ede75">Greenland and data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/panama-canal-trump-us-invasion-19d1a3723ac0c407f49e8b35aebc14f1">Panama, suggesting that American developers could help data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-gaza-plan-palestinians-israel-3f12eb51869da2221afbb22b0bcf47ba">convert the data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war">war-torn Gaza Strip into a Riviera-like resort and even suggesting annexation of Canada.
“I run the country and the world,” Trump told data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/atlantic-goldberg-trump-interview-signal-2240f020331b6927e3536e36f52b1b2b">The Atlantic magazine in an interview. He told Time of his first 100 days, “I think that what I’m doing is exactly what I’ve campaigned on.”
That doesn’t mean it’s popular.
Only about 4 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnorc.org/projects/immigration-remains-one-of-trumps-strongest-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is handling the presidency, and his ratings on the economy and trade are lower than that. Additionally, 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnorc.org/projects/immigration-remains-one-of-trumps-strongest-issues/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immigration policies, with about half of Americans saying he has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally.
Just 33% of Americans, meanwhile, have a favorable view of Musk, the Tesla CEO and world’s richest person, and about half believe the administration has gone too far in working to data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/doge-firings-layoffs-federal-government-workers-musk-d33cdd7872d64d2bdd8fe70c28652654">pare back the government workforce.
“The bottom line for the first hundred days is, lots of damage being done to the fundamentals of our government,” said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit dedicated to better government.
Stier noted that there’d been “a lot of interest in this idea of trying to make our government more efficient, and what we’ve seen instead is the most substantial destruction of our core governmental capabilities in history.”
Michigan was one of the data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-pennsylvania-republicans-trump-mccormick-blue-wall-michigan-wisconsin-211cf863c602028d80c54bceb237bb2f">battleground states Trump flipped from the Democratic column. But it’s also been deeply affected by his tariffs, including on new imported cars and auto parts.
Michigan’s unemployment rate has risen for three straight months, including jumping 1.3% from March to reach 5.5%, according to data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://milmi.org/_docs/publications/Press_Releases/State0325.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state data. That’s among the highest in the nation, far exceeding the national average of 4.2%.
Automaker Stellantis data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/stellantis-canada-mexico-trump-tariff-0fb91b75a3c320c4243c95d9671ebd66">halted production at plants in Canada and Mexico after Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, temporarily laying off 900 U.S. employees. Industry groups have separately urged the White House to scrap plans for tariffs on imported auto parts, warning that doing so would raise prices on cars and could trigger “layoffs and bankruptcy.”
That seemingly would make the state an odd choice for Trump to hail his own accomplishments.
“I’m not sure that he is at all interested in doing the smart thing,” said Bernie Porn, a longtime Michigan pollster. “He is what I would call an in-your-face president. ‘This is what I’m going to do.’”
Trump is also visiting Selfridge, which was established after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, and the community college campus in Warren. Both are near the Canadian border and home to many people with deep business and personal ties to that country.
“Michigan always feels very, very positively toward Canada,” said the pollster, who noted that its voters “can’t be reacting well to the kinds of things he’s done.”
Typically, presidents use the 100-day mark to launch multiple rallies. But Trump is doing only the Michigan stop before giving the commencement address at the University of Alabama on Thursday.
Administration officials say the Republican president is at his most effective staying at the White House, having meetings and speaking to reporters nearly every day. Indeed, Trump’s Macomb Community College speech will be one of the few large in-person crowds he’s addressed since Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
Except for data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-first-trip-california-north-carolina-nevada-b906880254ce7bf249c3dcefa45bf846">a trip to tour hurricane damage in North Carolina and wildfire devastation in Southern California and data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-las-vegas-taxes-tips-hospitality-workers-92da0193df89d1773b8f7dcc84ea7e3d">a Las Vegas speech that included briefly chatting with gamblers on a casino floor, Trump’s early months have been characterized by little domestic travel.
The exceptions have been flying most weekends to golf in Florida or attend sporting events, including the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500, where Trump relished the crowds but didn’t speak to them. The limited travel to see supporters is a major departure from his first term, when Trump held major rallies in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky before celebrating data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/c83a048828fd4e1884fe897eca053717">100 days in office with a Pennsylvania speech in 2017.
Also in the spotlight will be Whitmer, who is frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate. Long a Trump critic, Whitmer has sought to data-gtm-enhancement-style="LinkEnhancementA" href="https://apnews.com/article/governor-gretchen-whitmer-wants-collaboration-with-trump-c66bf6d351c3da69158b8365d4aa5f9a">find common ground with the president lately, visiting him at the White House and discussing the future of Selfridge specifically.
Whitmer is concerned about the A-10 aircraft stationed at the base being phased out, though Trump recently said he hoped to keep Selfridge “open, strong, thriving.”
The Michigan pollster noted that Whitmer has continued to criticize Trump on key issues like the environment. But, he added, “She does, I think, more so than a lot of other Democrats, realize that the guy’s in office, and it probably makes sense to try and — to the extent possible on those things where they agree — work together with him.”
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WILL WEISSERT Weissert covers national politics and the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington.
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JOEY CAPPELLETTI Cappelletti covers politics and state government for The Associated Press in Michigan. He is based in Lansing.
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Trump marks his first 100 days in office with a rally in Michigan, a state rocked by his tariffs
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December 19, 2025, 02:08:25 AM