President Donald Trump has officially made it to the 100-day mark and took the opportunity to give his assessment of his time in office.
“We’re here tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country — and that‘s according to many, many people,” Trump told a crowd of cheering supporters Tuesday evening in Warren, Michigan, just outside Detroit. “This is the best, they say, 100-day start of any president in history, and everyone is saying it.”
In the last three months, Trump has made major changes to the nation’s immigration system, the military and education. He’s banned biological males from competing in women’s sports, taken on higher education, eliminated thousands of federal jobs and is remaking the world order on trade and conflict. Trump hailed these changes as major accomplishments during his address.
“We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t seen anything yet,” he said Tuesday. Of course, not all of his policies are popular, even among his own base.
Defending tariffs
The across-the-board tariffs have been perhaps the most controversial changes. Trump pushed against the tariff critics Tuesday evening, and what better place to make his point of bringing back U.S. manufacturing than Michigan, the hub of the auto manufacturing industry.
“The companies are coming in by the 10s. ... They all want to come back to Michigan and build cars again. You know why? Because of our tax and tariff policy,” the president said.
Trump signed an executive order earlier that would give tariff rebates to companies that assemble their vehicles in the U.S.
He also claimed the trade war with China is bound to settle down.
“I think it‘s gonna work out. They want to make a deal. We’re going to make a deal. It‘s going to be a fair deal,” he said. The U.S. currently enforces 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, and Beijing reciprocates by levying a 125% tax on American products.
Trump said he brought back respect to the White House and now, leaders from all over the world are coming to see “your president” to make a deal.
Trump calls polls ‘fake’
At one point, Trump said he missed the campaign. Like his campaign rallies from the 2024 election cycle, Trump stuck to attacking his political opponents, name-calling, dismissing his legal troubles and stretching the truth a little bit in his 90-minute address.
Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff, joined him on stage and talked about his boss “draining the swamp,” as he has done at many rallies.
Trump gave a shout-out to his loyal rally attendees and allies-turned-Cabinet members, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and billionaire Elon Musk, an adviser to the president.
Trump even ended his speech with his signature dance to “YMCA” by the Village People, another viral throwback to his campaign days.
The election is over but Trump’s attacks of his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, still continue. Trump holds Biden accountable for the state of the economy and lack of border security.
But one thing is obviously different: his administration’s policies are in play and starting to affect the day-to-day of common Americans, who aren’t exactly happy.
Polling from Trump’s first three months in office hasn’t been promising. In a recent New York Times/Sienna College survey, 66% of voters said the word “chaotic” describes Trump’s second term well; another 59% chose “scary” and 42% said “exciting.”
The poll, similar to recent polls from NBC and Fox News, showed an increasing number of Americans are unhappy with Trump. His approval rating has steadily fallen and now sits in the low 40s, a historic low compared to other presidents at the 100-day mark, as the Deseret News reported.
But for Trump, it‘s how you look at it. Calling the polls “fake” for surveying more Democrats than Republicans, the president asserted his actual approval ratings hover around the 60th and 70th percentile.
Inflation
The president said his administration helped save Easter. Trump recalled asking Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to fix the egg problem.
“She said, ‘Well, you can get them. The prices through the roof, and it looks like we’re gonna have a real problem for Easter. You’re not gonna have eggs.’ I said, ‘Brooke, that doesn’t sound politically viable to me,’” Trump said. “She did a great job. And you had so many eggs for Easter.”
He claimed the cost of eggs was down 87% and that gas prices dropped below $2 a gallon in three states.
“Gasoline prices are down by a lot. Energy prices are down. Mortgage rates actually just went down. Prescription drug prices just saw their largest monthly decline ever recorded,” he said.
He touted slower inflation but attacked Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for “not really doing a good job.”
According to the Consumer Price Index Summary by the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the annual inflation rate for March was 2.4%, a drop from 2.8% in February. It‘s the lowest rate since last October.
He has also said he believes that eventually his tariff policies will pay dividends by forcing open markets in other countries to American goods.