Chicago – April 30, 2025
Donald Trump’s Michigan rally celebrating the 100th day of his second term wasn’t a campaign rally, but it resembled one in many ways. He spoke for almost an hour and a half, falsely claimed to have won the 2020 presidential election, danced to “YMCA,” and acknowledged the regulars that have shown up to his rallies for years.
“I miss you guys,” he said to the Front Row Joes, one group of Trump faithful. “I miss the campaign.”
While the Tuesday night rally had been billed as a way to celebrate his 100-day record, it served many more purposes. Trump also used his time on stage to luxuriate in the crowd’s adoration, blame Joe Biden for various national problems, and insist that he, as president, is not getting the credit he deserves for his accomplishments.
Among the policies Trump celebrated was his deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador — a move that courts have challenged. In recent days, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked new deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, the law the Trump administration has used to deport more than 200 people to El Salvador.
Trump boasted about his tariff policy, which has worried economists and consumers alike, raising recession fears. Trump casts tariffs, however, as a way to punish countries he feels have been unfair to the U.S.
While Trump’s tariff policy has been aggressive, including 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, his trade policy also changes frequently. On Tuesday, Trump signed executive actions to ease the tariff burden on automakers who assemble cars in the U.S.
“Somebody would say, ‘Oh, well, that’s a change.’ It’s called a little flexibility,” Trump said, before adding a threatening note about companies that don’t eventually build in the United States: “We give them a little time before we slaughter them if they don’t do this, right?”
Trump took time to condemn the news media, as he often did on the campaign trail, and reserved some criticism for pollsters.
Many polls have shown Trump’s approval rating to be dropping since he took office. A new NPR/PBS News/Marist survey, for example, has his overall approval rating down to 42%.
Trump without evidence decried these as “fake polls.”
“They say Trump only has a 44% approval rating,” he said. “Well, that’s actually not bad. But when you figure that if it were a legit poll, it would be in the 60s or 70s, is – these people are a bunch of crooked people.”
