
Trump marks first 100 days by reliving 2024 campaign hits and screening El Salvador prison propaganda video
President Donald Trump last campaign ended nearly half a year ago, but that isn't stopping him from finding solace in the raucous crowds and predictable routines of the campaign trail.
One hundred days into his second term as America's chief executive and 176 days since he closed out his days as a candidate with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Trump returned to the Wolverine State to mark the end of the traditional hundred-day period that historians have often used to judge how well a president handles the challenges presented him at the outset of his time in the White House.
Speaking from a lectern adorned with the presidential seal and surrounded by grandstands and large signs proclaiming a 'golden age,' Trump called the start of his term — a period that has seen Americans' consumer confidence crater and the stock market decline precipitously in response to an unprovoked trade war he started against the rest of the developed world — 'most successful first 100 days of any administration in the history of our country.'
The president touted his crackdown on asylum seekers and harsh new border policies as 'ending illegal immigration' and characterized the massive import taxes he has imposed on vehicles built by American automobile manufacturers under the terms of a trade agreement he negotiated during his first term as 'protecting our great American auto workers.'
He also boasted of having pardoned thousands of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol at his behest in an effort to nullify his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, offering that act as an example of how he is 'restoring the rule of law' in his return to the White House.
'We're ending the inflation nightmare, the worst that we've had probably in the history of our country, getting woke, lunacy and transgender insanity the hell out of our government. We're stopping the indoctrination of our children, slashing billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, and above all, we're saving the American dream. We're making America great again, and it's happening fast,' said Trump, who added that his whirlwind first 100 days back in office have brought a 'revolution of common sense' to the United States.
But what seemed to animate Trump most in his return to the rallies that have defined his political career was seeing his friends.
At multiple points during his stem-winding, rambling 89-minute address, the president stopped to acknowledge people in the crowd who he recognized as part of the traveling circus that characterized his three presidential campaigns, which collectively spawned a class of super-fans who followed him from town to town like some people followed The Grateful Dead in that iconic ensemble's heyday.
'Look at you 'Front Row Joes,' he said to one group who gave themselves that nickname because they spent collective years waiting in lines so they could be in the front row for his campaign speeches.
'I've missed you guys — I miss the campaign,' the president continued, adding that some of the aforementioned 'joes' had 'lost a couple of pounds.'
'Perhaps you're getting one of those jabbers,' he added as he mimed the act of injecting himself with one of the auto injector pens used to administer GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic.
He also called out Blake Marnell, a mainstay at Trump rallies dating back to 2019 when the president invited him to the stage after spotting him wearing a bespoke novelty suit patterned to look like a brick wall.
'I have Mr. Wall here, this guy — how many rallies have you gone to?'
Marnell replied that he'd been to hundreds by now, at which point Trump suggested he would one day acquire a suit like Marnell's to wear on stage.
Continuing, Trump went on to boast of the record low border crossing numbers that have been reported since he instituted a crackdown on the right to claim asylum in the United States and reimposed harsh anti-migration policies from his first term, before reliving how the Democratic Party candidate in 2024 changed from then-president Joe Biden to then-vice president Kamala Harris after Biden's somnolent, confused performance in his sole debate against Trump last June.
Returning to the subject of illegal immigration and his crackdown against it, Trump praise the efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and bragged about having designated a pair of South American street gangs — Tren de Aragua and MS-13 — as 'foreign terrorist organizations,' a category the administration claims as giving them the right to bypass due process protections for anyone they deem to be a member of either group.
'We are delivering mass deportation, and it's happening very fast,' he said, adding later that the 'worst of the worst' migrants are being sent to what he called a 'no-nonsense prison in El Salvador' — the infamous CECOT constructed by self-described Salvadoran dictator Nayib Bukele.
At that point, the giant video screens erected at the rally venue played a wordless sizzle reel accompanied by dark mood music, showing detainees arriving on American military planes before being processed and huddled into the hellish prison by Salvadoran military police.
Trump called the scenes depicted in the video 'lovely' and went on to repeat a series of oft-told but unverified claims he debuted during the 2024 campaign regarding foreign countries emptying prisons and 'sending' violent criminals to the U.S. to seek asylum.
'They come in from Africa. The Congo, they emptied out their prisons into our country, but they come from Africa, Asia, South America. They come from all over bad parts of Europe. That's why we've invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expel every foreign terrorist from our soil as quickly as possible,' he said.
The president's focus on immigration-related accomplishments not only harkened back to his previous presidential campaign rhetoric, but it allowed him to keep most of his remarks on a subject that remains a relative strength for him amid dismal polling numbers showing him with the lowest approval ratings of any president in the modern era after the first 100 days of an administration.
One Reuters/Ipsos survey released this week shows just 42 percent of respondents approve and 53 percent disapprove of his performance thus far, a number he said was 'actually not bad' while positing that a 'legit poll' would give him at least 60 percent approval.
The Reuters poll also showed that the percentage of respondents who approve of his economic stewardship had declined a point to 36 percent – the lowest level in his current term or in his 2017-2021 presidency, while disapproval rose 5 points to 56 percent.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Metro
23 minutes ago
- Metro
Why did Donald Trump and Elon Musk fall out? Feud explained
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video 'The girls are fighting, aren't they?' This is how US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez summarised the fallout between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. It would be funny if it were not two of the most powerful men in the world. Yes, their bromance has imploded in full public view, complete with snarky swipes, tantrums and accusations that could have huge legal implications. The first major cracks in their relationship showed at the end of last month on what turned out to be Musk's last day in the White House. The Tesla CEO had become bolder in expressing his dissent over Trump's budget and tax cut bill currently making its way through Congress. Asked about Musk's disapproval of his 'Big, Beautiful Bill', the US president told reporters last night: 'Elon and I had a great relationship. I don't know if we will any more.' Musk responded, lashing out further overnight, branding it a 'disgusting abomination' that will explode federal budget deficits. 'Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it,' he wrote on X. The criticism quickly escalated into an all-out brawl between the pair, each on their own social media sites Truth Social and X, or in press conferences. Trump threatened to pull back billions of dollars in government contracts for Musk's companies, while the billionaire bit back, suggesting that Trump would have lost the election without him. It was Musk's tweet – linking Trump with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein – that caused the most controversy. He alleged that the Republican leader is featured in the secret government files on rich and powerful former associates of thesex offender, reigniting long-running conspiracy theories. Musk posted: 'Time to drop the really big bomb: (Trump) is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public.' He later reposted a video from 1992 of Trump partying with Epstein and memes about their feud – amplifying them to his 220 million followers on X. Supporters on the conspiratorial end of Trump's base allege that Epstein's associates had their roles in his crimes covered up by government officials and others. They point the finger at Democrats and Hollywood celebrities, however, not at Trump himself. No official source has ever confirmed that the president appears in any of the material. Musk did not reveal which files he was talking about, and offered no actual evidence for his claim. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Thursday called Musk's behavior 'an unfortunate episode' adding the tycoon is 'unhappy with the One Big Beautiful Bill because it does not include the policies he wanted.' But the allegation prompted fresh demands for a release of the material – this time from Democrats keen on turning a MAGA conspiracy theory back on its proponents. The breakup could reshape both men's futures. For Musk, the stakes are potentially even higher. More Trending This was already evident minutes into the online feud as Tesla's stock price plunged 14%. The break risks intensified scrutiny of his business practices that could jeopardize government contracts and invite regulatory probes, which might threaten his companies' profits. For Trump, losing Musk's backing threatens his growing influence among tech donors, social media audiences, and younger male voters – all key groups that may now be harder to reach. It could also complicate fundraising ahead of next year's midterm elections. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: The Dark MAGA conspiracy about Trump, Musk and a new world order MORE: Zelensky refutes Trump's take on war and calls Putin 'murderer who came to kill the kids' MORE: Urgent recall of 1,700,000 air conditioners over fears they harbour mold


Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Schwarzenegger: Stop whining about Trump and act on climate change
Arnold Schwarzenegger has urged environmentalists to 'stop whining' about Donald Trump's approach to climate change and instead 'get to work'. The veteran actor, 77, said Mr Trump was not a barrier to change and activists should stop using him as an excuse not to act. 'I've noticed people always said to me: 'Well, what is the point of fighting the environmental issue here and to reduce pollution, with Trump in the White House?'' the activist told the BBC after appearing on stage at a climate conference in Vienna. Mr Trump and his administration have repeatedly called climate change a hoax, despite the scientific evidence. 'I tell them: 'Hey, stop whining,'' he continued. 'We all have a responsibility. What – do you think that action comes only for the whole world out of Washington, the White House? No. You have to be aware of your obstacles, but you should not go and use them as an excuse.' The former Republican governor of California, who focused on environmental issues during his time in office, has continued campaigning globally on climate change since leaving politics. 'Be the mayor that makes buses electric; be the CEO who ends fossil fuel dependence; be the school that puts [up] solar roofs,' he said at the Austrian World Summit, a climate event in Vienna he helped to organise. 'You can't just sit around and make excuses because one guy in a very nice White House on Pennsylvania Avenue doesn't agree with you,' said Schwarzenegger. 'I know that the people are sick and tired of the whining and the complaining and the doom and gloom,' he said. 'The only way we win the people's hearts and minds is by showing them action that makes their lives better.' On his first day in office, Mr Trump fulfilled his energy campaign promises by ending the Democrats' war on fossil fuels. He issued executive orders promoting oil and gas production and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. The president also withdrew from other commitments in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Mr Trump has pledged to open hundreds more coal-fired power plants and to halt closures driven by environmental regulations in an effort to compete with China, the world's largest source of carbon emissions. However, Beijing has embarked on its own ambitious clean energy plans, including rolling out affordable electric vehicles domestically and internationally that compete fiercely with Tesla. Much of that has been driven by an interest in boosting the Chinese economy, and to clear the blanket of thick black smoke and smog that has covered China for decades and upset the country's residents. Coal is the most polluting form of energy, and has contributed to significant health risks and even fatalities in China. As the world's most populous nation with more than 1.4 billion people – more than four times that of the US – China has extremely high energy demands to keep the country running. While the US also has energy demands to meet, the country was previously seen as a leader in climate change, particularly under Barack Obama, and in bringing the world together to lower global emissions. However, Mr Trump has reversed his predecessors' energy agenda on net zero and incentives for wind and solar, going against what many other countries are doing. The UK, for instance, became the first G7 country to end the use of coal power when it shut down its last coal-fired power station last September. The government has also banned all new fossil fuel extraction in a bid to accelerate the move toward renewable energy sources.


The Independent
32 minutes ago
- The Independent
A US territory's colonial history emerges in state disputes over voting and citizenship
Squeezed between glacier-packed mountains and Alaska's Prince William Sound, the cruise-ship stop of Whittier is isolated enough that it's reachable by just a single road, through a long, one-lane tunnel that vehicles share with trains. It's so small that nearly all its 260 residents live in the same 14-story condo building. But Whittier also is the unlikely crossroads of two major currents in American politics: fighting over what it means to be born on U.S. soil and false claims by President Donald Trump and others that noncitizen voter fraud is widespread. In what experts describe as an unprecedented case, Alaska prosecutors are pursuing felony charges against 11 residents of Whittier, most of them related to one another, saying they falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering or trying to vote. The defendants were all born in American Samoa, an island cluster in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. It's the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by virtue of having been born on American soil, as the Constitution dictates. Instead, by a quirk of geopolitical history, they are considered 'U.S. nationals' — a distinction that gives them certain rights and obligations while denying them others. American Samoans are entitled to U.S. passports and can serve in the military. Men must register for the Selective Service. They can vote in local elections in American Samoa but cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections. Those who wish to become citizens can do so, but the process costs hundreds of dollars and can be cumbersome. 'To me, I'm an American. I was born an American on U.S. soil,' said firefighter Michael Pese, one of those charged in Whittier. 'American Samoa has been U.S. soil, U.S. jurisdiction, for 125 years. According to the supreme law of the land, that's my birthright.' Confusion over voting is not just an Alaska problem The status has created confusion in other states, as well. In Oregon, officials inadvertently registered nearly 200 American Samoan residents to vote when they got their driver's licenses under the state's motor-voter law. Of those, 10 cast ballots in an election, according to the Oregon Secretary of State's office. Officials there determined the residents had not intended to break the law and no crime was committed. In Hawaii, one resident who was born in American Samoa, Sai Timoteo, ran for the state Legislature in 2018 before learning she wasn't allowed to hold public office or vote. She had always considered it her civic duty to vote, and the form on the voting materials had one box to check: 'U.S. Citizen/U.S. National.' 'I checked that box my entire life,' she said. She also avoided charges, and Hawaii subsequently changed its form to make it more clear. Is U.S. citizenship a birthright? Amid the storm of executive orders issued by Trump in the early days of his second term was one that sought to redefine birthright citizenship by barring it for children of parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully. Another would overhaul how federal elections are run, among other changes requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship. Courts so far have blocked both orders. The Constitution says that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.' It also leaves the administration of elections to the states. The case in Whittier began with Pese's wife, Tupe Smith. After the couple moved to Whittier in 2018, Smith began volunteering at the Whittier Community School, where nearly half of the 55 students were American Samoan — many of them her nieces and nephews. She would help the kids with their English, tutor them in reading and cook them Samoan dishes. In 2023, a seat on the regional school board came open and she ran for it. She was the only candidate and won with about 95% of the vote. One morning a few weeks later, as she was making her two children breakfast, state troopers came knocking. They asked about her voting history. She explained that she knew she wasn't allowed to vote in U.S. presidential elections, but thought she could vote in local or state races. She said she checked a box affirming that she was a U.S. citizen at the instruction of elections workers because there was no option to identify herself as a U.S. national, court records say. The troopers arrested her and drove her to a women's prison near Anchorage. She was released that day after her husband paid bail. 'When they put me in cuffs, my son started crying," Smith told The Associated Press. "He told their dad that he don't want the cops to take me or to lock me up.' A question of intent About 10 months later, troopers returned to Whittier and issued court summonses to Pese, eight other relatives and one man who was not related but came from the same American Samoa village as Pese. One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, grew up in another U.S. territory, Guam, and is the co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, whose mission is 'confronting and dismantling the undemocratic colonial framework governing people in U.S. territories.' He suggested the prosecutions are aimed at 'low-hanging fruit' in the absence of evidence that illegal immigrants frequently cast ballots in U.S. elections. Even state-level investigations have found voting by noncitizens to be exceptionally rare. 'There is no question that Ms. Smith lacked an intent to mislead or deceive a public official in order to vote unlawfully when she checked 'U.S. citizen' on voter registration materials,' he wrote in a brief to the Alaska Court of Appeals last week, after a lower court judge declined to dismiss the charges. Prosecutors say her false claim of citizenship was intentional, and her claim to the contrary was undercut by the clear language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022. The forms said that if the applicant did not answer yes to being over 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, 'do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.' A dispute entangled with a colonial past The unique situation of American Samoans dates to the 19th century, when the U.S. and European powers were seeking to expand their colonial and economic interests in the South Pacific. The U.S. Navy secured the use of Pago Pago Harbor in eastern Samoa as a coal-refueling station for military and commercial vessels, while Germany sought to protect its coconut plantations in western Samoa. Eventually the archipelago was divided, with the western islands becoming the independent nation of Samoa and the eastern ones becoming American Samoa, overseen by the Navy. The leaders of American Samoa spent much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries arguing that its people should be U.S. citizens. Birthright citizenship was eventually afforded to residents of other U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Congress considered it for American Samoa in the 1930s, but declined. Some lawmakers cited financial concerns during the Great Depression while others expressed patently racist objections, according to a 2020 article in the American Journal of Legal History. Supporters of automatic citizenship say it would particularly benefit the estimated 150,000 to 160,000 nationals who live in the states, many of them in California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Alaska. 'We pay taxes, we do exactly the same as everybody else that are U.S. citizens,' Smith said. 'It would be nice for us to have the same rights as everybody here in the states.' Legal questions over status to be tested anew But many in American Samoa eventually soured on the idea, fearing that extending birthright citizenship would jeopardize its customs — including the territory's communal land laws. Island residents could be dispossessed by land privatization, not unlike what happened in Hawaii, said Siniva Bennett, board chair of the Samoa Pacific Development Corporation, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit. 'We've been able to maintain our culture, and we haven't been divested from our land like a lot of other indigenous people in the U.S.,' Bennett said. In 2021, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to extend automatic citizenship to those born in American Samoa, saying it would be wrong to force citizenship on those who don't want it. The Supreme Court declined to review the decision. Several jurisdictions across the country, including San Francisco and the District of Columbia, allow people who are not citizens to vote in certain local elections. Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, with the Pacific Community of Alaska, said the situation has been so confusing that her organization reached out to the Alaska Division of Elections in 2021 and 2022 to ask whether American Samoans could vote in state and local elections. Neither time did it receive a direct answer, she said. 'People were telling our community that they can vote as long as you have your voter registration card and it was issued by the state,' she said. Finally, last year, Carol Beecher, the head of the state Division of Elections, sent Toleafoa's group a letter saying American Samoans are not eligible to vote in Alaska elections. But by then, the voting forms had been signed. 'It is my hope that this is a lesson learned, that the state of Alaska agrees that this could be something that we can administratively correct,' Toleafoa said. 'I would say that the state could have done that instead of prosecuting community members.' ___ Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska, and Johnson from Seattle. Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.