President Donald Trump on Tuesday cast the first 100 days of his term as an unqualified success, reveling in the dramatic change he’s driven across American life despite warning signs that voters are souring on his agenda.
In his first visit to Michigan since winning the swing state last November, Trump hailed his disruptive tariff regime as “policies of common sense and genius,” celebrated a hardline immigration crackdown at the southern border and vowed to ramp up mass deportations — even as his administration confronts mounting legal challenges.
Trump’s Bold Claims and Controversies
In one provocative display, Trump paused his speech to show a flashy video documenting the deportation of migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador that has sparked an escalating confrontation between the White House and the courts. He attacked judges that he accused of “trying to take away the power given to the president,” insulted Democrats as “crazy” and “stupid,” and criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after acknowledging he wasn’t supposed to do it.
But Trump spent much of his 90-minute speech promising he was only just getting warmed up.
“This is the best, they say, start of any president in history,” Trump said. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
The speech in Macomb County represented a return to form for Trump, who made raucous rallies a staple of his campaigns and first term in office — yet has spent much of his first 100 days in the Oval Office, signing executive orders from behind the Resolute Desk.
Trump has rarely left the White House in his opening months except to travel to his own properties in Florida and New Jersey, only making his first foreign trip last week to attend the funeral of Pope Francis.
Policy Impact and Public Opinion
Trump’s hundreds of Oval Office directives have generated repercussions across government, the economy and the wider world, reshaping the major swathes of society at a breakneck pace.
“In 100 days, we have delivered the most profound change in Washington in nearly 100 years,” Trump said, at one point ticking off a list of dozens of executive orders. “One hundred days, we’ve done all the things that I’ve named, and a lot more.”
While the flood of policies has thrilled loyalists, including those who packed in to see the rally in Macomb County, outside of the arena they have unnerved a growing share of the public.
The president’s approval ratings have dropped sharply since his inauguration, driven by voters’ growing economic anxiety and unease with a deportation effort that has been billed as targeting criminals but has nevertheless swept up people who have not committed any serious crimes along with college students and even U.S. citizens.
Economic Challenges and Trade Wars
The White House has faced widespread opposition over its tariff policies, as businesses and voters in states like Michigan brace for rising prices. Trump’s overall approval ratings now sit in the low 40s, according to polling ahead of his 100-day mark, with majorities of voters expressing dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy.
Trump sought at his rally to downplay the blowback, boasting that his trade war would ultimately strengthen the U.S. and suggesting that he may not even seek to strike the renegotiated deals with some foreign countries that investors have counted on to bring certainty back to the stock market.
Challenges and Future Prospects
Still, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the widespread unhappiness with the centerpiece of his economic agenda. Ahead of his trip, Trump eased tariffs that were set to hit domestic automakers central to Michigan’s economy — though he later insisted it would only be a short-lived reprieve before “we slaughter” the car part manufacturers who refuse to move their operations to the U.S.
And on stage, Trump complained about the polls, dismissing the surveys as illegitimate.
“The fake polls,” he said of polling showing his approval rating hovering around 42 percent. “If it were a legit poll, it would be in the 60s and 70s.”
Trump also spent significant time disparaging the courts and lawmakers that have hamstrung parts of his agenda, accusing the courts that have limited his most aggressive deportation efforts of working to undermine him and begging the Supreme Court to intervene.
“I hope for the sake of our country that the Supreme Court is going to save this,” he said, later vowing that “nothing will stop me in the mission to keep America safe again.”
The president sounded a note of warning for Republicans who have expressed skepticism of key elements of sweeping tax legislation that the administration has pushed to approve by July 4, instructing the crowd to take note of the “grandstanders” and “vote them out of office.”
But Trump saved much of his vitriol for the opponents he had already vanquished, frequently bashing former President Joe Biden and revisiting the 2024 race.
“The debate was not a good one for him,” he said of the June debate that eventually prompted Biden to abandon his reelection. “He was down 35 points and they decided to replace him.”
It was an example of the kind of decisive triumph that, for Trump, has been tougher to come by since his return to the White House. And surrounded for the first time in months by thousands of hardcore fans, he appeared more than happy to reminisce.
“I miss you guys,” Trump said. “I miss the campaign.”
