On the 100th day, he rallied.
Crossing the symbolic barrier between the first 100 days of his presidency and the 1,361 that remain, Trump basked in adulation from a supportive crowd and declared that he had just completed the “the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country.” He waxed nostalgic about his last act with familiar grievances and hyperbolic claims, and seized the moment to set a course for the next one.
Yet the events of the day only illustrated that for all the action he’s taken so far, difficult tasks remain ahead.
Even before he arrived in Michigan, Trump had taken steps to pull back from the auto tariffs he’d put in place weeks earlier, heeding warnings from auto executives and analysts who said the duties could add thousands of dollars to the price of a new car.
And he’d spent the morning fuming about a report Amazon might list tariff price hikes on its popular marketplace, issuing a warning to founder Jeff Bezos and declaring the move hostile (Amazon said after Trump’s call the plan was only an idea and wouldn’t be implemented).
The president is presiding over an increasingly skeptical public. His 41% approval rating in CNN’s latest poll is the worst for any modern president at the 100-day mark. His 39% approval for his handling of the economy marks a career low.
But surrounded by signs that declared this “THE GOLDEN AGE” at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, Trump – and his supporters – were ebullient.
“We’ve just gotten started,” the president declared. “You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
Over an hour-and-a-half, Trump delivered familiar riffs about “Sleepy Joe,” a nod to former President Joe Biden. He drew applause from the crowd as he chided former Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he called a “great candidate.” And he repeated the biggest mistruth of all about winning the 2020 election.
“I miss you guys,” Trump said. “I’ve missed the campaign.”
As the White House begins turning its full attention to the president’s legislative agenda, with a July deadline looming for his budget and tax plan, Trump spent very little time dwelling on the next 100 days that could play a large role in defining his presidency. He barely mentioned the economic anxieties that have weighed down his public approval, though his visit to Michigan highlighted his roller-coaster approach to tariffs, which are rooted in his long-held belief for how to revive American manufacturing.
The next chapter of this challenge is yet to play out as Trump balances the demands of automakers, who argue his tariffs could inflict deep economic pain, with the interests of the working class, whom he has sought to champion. But in his telling, his evolving tax and tariff moves had convinced automakers “to come back to Michigan and build cars again.”
“You finally have a champion for workers in the White House,” Trump said. “Instead of putting China first, I’m putting Michigan first and I’m putting America first.”
Trump hailed his hardline immigration policies as a signature accomplishment – one of the biggest “promises kept” from his campaign – and in an interview that aired later on ABC, he cast doubt on the idea that those alleged to be in the country illegally deserve due process.
“If people come into our country illegally, there’s a different standard. … They get a process where we have to get them out,” he continued. “They get whatever my lawyers say.”
He claimed at the rally to have terminated Biden’s “insane electric vehicle mandate,” though there has never been a federal decree prohibiting Americans from buying gasoline-powered cars. He asserted that he knows “much more” than the chairman of the federal reserve, with whom he has sparred over interest rates. He said he was stopping the “gravy train” for “deep state bureaucrats,” but later told ABC he was considering reversing some of the cuts implemented by his Department of Government Efficiency.
For the first three months of his presidency, Trump has been something of a homebody, spending most of his time at the White House or one of his homes and golf courses in Florida or New Jersey. But as he lingered on stage Tuesday night, at the conclusion of the rally, he seemed to relish being back in the aura that has dominated nearly a decade of political life.
“We will never back down. We will never surrender,” Trump said. “We will fight, fight, fight and we will win, win, win together. Together, we will make America powerful again.”
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