By WILL WEISSERT and JOEY CAPPELLETTI, Associated Press

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Michigan on Tuesday to mark the first 100 days of his second term, staging his largest public event since returning to the White House in a state that has been especially rocked by his steep trade tariffs and combative attitude toward Canada.

Trump is making an afternoon visit to Selfridge Air National Guard Base for an announcement alongside Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He’s expected to speak at a rally at Macomb Community College, north of Detroit, allowing him to revel in leading a sprint to upend government and social, political and foreign policy norms.

FILE – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives a policy speech at an event, April 9, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

His Republican administration’s strict immigration polices have sent arrests for illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border plummeting, and government-slashing efforts led by billionaire adviser Elon Musk have shaken Washington to its core. Its protectionist import taxes imposed on America’s trade partners have also sought to reorder a global economy that the U.S. had painstakingly built and nurtured in the decades after World War II.

Trump has also championed sweeping U.S. expansionism, refusing to rule out military intervention in Greenland and Panama, suggesting that American developers could help convert the war-torn Gaza Strip into a Riviera-like resort and even suggesting annexation of Canada.

“I run the country and the world,” Trump told The Atlantic magazine in an interview. He told Time of his first 100 days, “I think that what I’m doing is exactly what I’ve campaigned on.”

That doesn’t mean it’s popular.

Only about 4 in 10 Americans approve of how Trump is handling the presidency, and his ratings on the economy and trade are lower than that. Additionally, 46% of U.S. adults approve of Trump’s immigration policies, with about half of Americans saying he has “gone too far” when it comes to deporting immigrants living in the country illegally.

Just 33% of Americans, meanwhile, have a favorable view of Musk, the Tesla CEO and world’s richest person, and about half believe the administration has gone too far in working to pare back the government workforce.

“The bottom line for the first hundred days is, lots of damage being done to the fundamentals of our government,” said Max Stier, founding president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit dedicated to better government.

Stier noted that there’d been “a lot of interest in this idea of trying to make our government more efficient, and what we’ve seen instead is the most substantial destruction of our core governmental capabilities in history.”

Michigan was one of the battleground states Trump flipped from the Democratic column. But it’s also been deeply affected by his tariffs, including on new imported cars and auto parts.

President Donald Trump arrives to welcome the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles NFL football team to the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Michigan’s unemployment rate has risen for three straight months, including jumping 1.3% from March to reach 5.5%, according to state data. That’s among the highest in the nation, far exceeding the national average of 4.2%.

Automaker Stellantis halted production at plants in Canada and Mexico after Trump announced a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, temporarily laying off 900 U.S. employees. Industry groups have separately urged the White House to scrap plans for tariffs on imported auto parts, warning that doing so would raise prices on cars and could trigger “layoffs and bankruptcy.”

That seemingly would make the state an odd choice for Trump to hail his own accomplishments.

“I’m not sure that he is at all interested in doing the smart thing,” said Bernie Porn, a longtime Michigan pollster. “He is what I would call an in-your-face president. ‘This is what I’m going to do.’”

Trump is also visiting Selfridge, which was established after the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, and the community college campus in Warren. Both are near the Canadian border and home to many people with deep business and personal ties to that country.

Related Articles

John M. Crisp: What I wish Rumeysa Ozturk could have learned in the US

Ross Douthat: Why is Trump struggling? His adminstration is too ‘black-pilled’

Trump administration launches race-based discrimination investigations against Harvard Law Review

Bruce Yandle: Trump, like Twain’s cat, jumps from a hot stove

Noah Feldman: Here’s why the president keeps ignoring the law

“Michigan always feels very, very positively toward Canada,” said the pollster, who noted that its voters “can’t be reacting well to the kinds of things he’s done.”

Typically, presidents use the 100-day mark to launch multiple rallies. But Trump is doing only the Michigan stop before giving the commencement address at the University of Alabama on Thursday.

Administration officials say the Republican president is at his most effective staying at the White House, having meetings and speaking to reporters nearly every day. Indeed, Trump’s Macomb Community College speech will be one of the few large in-person crowds he’s addressed since Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.

Except for a trip to tour hurricane damage in North Carolina and wildfire devastation in Southern California and a Las Vegas speech that included briefly chatting with gamblers on a casino floor, Trump’s early months have been characterized by little domestic travel.

The exceptions have been flying most weekends to golf in Florida or attend sporting events, including the Super Bowl and the Daytona 500, where Trump relished the crowds but didn’t speak to them. The limited travel to see supporters is a major departure from his first term, when Trump held major rallies in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky before celebrating 100 days in office with a Pennsylvania speech in 2017.

Also in the spotlight will be Whitmer, who is frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate. Long a Trump critic, Whitmer has sought to find common ground with the president lately, visiting him at the White House and discussing the future of Selfridge specifically.

Whitmer is concerned about the A-10 aircraft stationed at the base being phased out, though Trump recently said he hoped to keep Selfridge “open, strong, thriving.”

The Michigan pollster noted that Whitmer has continued to criticize Trump on key issues like the environment. But, he added, “She does, I think, more so than a lot of other Democrats, realize that the guy’s in office, and it probably makes sense to try and — to the extent possible on those things where they agree — work together with him.”

By STEVE KARNOWSKI

U.S. Rep. Angie Craig on Tuesday became the latest Minnesota Democrat to enter the increasingly competitive race for a U.S. Senate seat currently held by the retiring Sen. Tina Smith.

In her launch video, Craig vows to “break through the chaos” and fight back against “a president trampling our rights and freedoms as he profits for personal gain, and a cowardly Republican Party rolling over and letting it all happen.”

The 53-year-old entered the Senate race after holding town hall meetings last week in all four congressional districts held by Minnesota Republicans, including Majority Whip Tom Emmer, to highlight the differences between Democrats and President Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress.

Smith, a Democrat, announced in February that she would not run again, setting off a scramble in her party for what will be an open seat that could help determine which party controls the Senate after 2026.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was first out of the gate and has been actively campaigning across the state. She has already piled up a long list of endorsements, including from Attorney General Keith Ellison, former U.S. Sen. Al Franken and several legislators. She raised over $450,000 in the first quarter.

Former state Sen Melisa López Franzen joined the race in March and is also making appearances statewide. López Franzen has endorsements from several current and former legislators and local officials. She raised more than $260,000 in her first three weeks.

But Craig is in the strongest financial position. Her House campaign raised over $1.2 million in the first quarter, and she can now spend that on the Senate race.

Craig is a former medical device company executive and former newspaper reporter. Craig and her wife, Cheryl, have four adult sons. Craig was targeted with death threats and forced to move after fighting off a mentally disturbed attacker in the elevator of her Washington apartment building in 2023.

She has represented the suburban-to-rural 2nd District south of Minneapolis and St. Paul since unseating Republican Jason Lewis in the 2018 election. While her territory was once considered a swing district, it has trended Democratic in recent years. Running as a centrist, she won reelection by a 13-point margin in 2024. But that district could conceivably become competitive again with her out.

Republicans actively raising money in the Senate race include antiestablishment grassroots candidate Royce White, a former NBA player who lost to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar in 2024, and former congressional candidate Adam Schwarze, a veteran of the Marine Corps and the Iraq War.

Today is Tuesday, April 29, the 119th day of 2025. There are 246 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On April 29, 1992, a jury in Simi Valley, California, acquitted four Los Angeles police officers charged with assault and using excessive force in the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King; the verdicts were followed by six days of rioting in Los Angeles which destroyed hundreds of businesses and resulted in over 60 deaths.

Also on this date:

In 1916, the Easter Rising in Dublin collapsed as Irish nationalists surrendered to British forces.

Related Articles

Today in History: April 28, Abu Ghraib torture images made public

Today in History: April 27, deadly tornadoes strike the Southeast

Today in History: April 26, the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster

A century after it opened, St. Paul’s Ford plant is gone but not quite forgotten

Today in History: April 25, conference opens to create the Charter of the United Nations

In 1945, during World War II, American soldiers liberated the Dachau concentration camp.

In 1991, a powerful tropical cyclone made landfall in Bangladesh, creating a storm surge that resulted in more than 138,000 deaths.

In 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention, a worldwide treaty banning the use of chemical weapons and mandating the destruction of existing chemical weapons, went into effect.

In 2008, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama denounced his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for what he termed “divisive and destructive” remarks on race.

In 2011, Britain’s Prince William and Kate Middleton were married in an opulent ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey.

Today’s Birthdays

Musician Willie Nelson is 92.
Baseball Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio is 91.
Conductor Zubin Mehta is 89.
Singer Tommy James is 78.
Golf Hall of Famer Johnny Miller is 78.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is 71.
Actor Kate Mulgrew is 70.
Actor Daniel Day-Lewis is 68.
Actor Michelle Pfeiffer is 67.
Singer-TV personality Carnie Wilson is 57.
Tennis Hall of Famer Andre Agassi is 55.
Actor Uma Thurman is 55.
Actor Megan Boone is 42.
NHL center Jonathan Toews is 37.
Pop singer Foxes is 36.
Golfer Justin Thomas is 32.

Canada’s Liberal Party won Monday’s national elections with voters giving a full term as prime minister to Mark Carney, according to the national broadcaster CBC/Radio Canada, choosing a seasoned economist and policymaker to guide their country through turbulent times.

The full results should be available later Monday or early Tuesday. But the voters’ decision sealed a stunning turnaround for the Liberal Party that just months ago seemed all but certain to lose to the Conservative Party, led by career politician Pierre Poilievre. Carney has been prime minister since March, when former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down.

The election has been remarkable in many ways, with candidates and many voters describing it as the most important vote in their lifetimes.

It has been dominated by President Donald Trump and his relentless focus on Canada, America’s closest ally and trading partner. Trump has imposed tariffs on Canadian goods, pushing it toward a recession, and repeatedly threatened to annex it as the 51st state. Even as Canadians were heading to the polls Monday morning he repeated that desire, arguing on social media that it would bring economic and military benefits.

Carney, 60, who promoted himself as the anti-Trump candidate and centered his campaign around dealing with the United States, ultimately benefited from Trump’s stance.

Poilievre, 45, and the Conservatives had been dominating polls for years, building a platform against the Liberals and Trudeau around the argument that they had dragged Canada into prolonged economic malaise.

But they watched their double-digit lead rapidly evaporate after Trump’s aggressiveness toward Canada and Trudeau’s resignation.

Canadians heading to the polls were preoccupied both with the country’s relationship with its neighbor to the south and with the state of the economy at home. Affordability worries, primarily over housing, were top of mind, opinion surveys conducted before the election showed.

But Canada’s choice Monday also came as a kind of referendum against Trump and the way he has been treating America’s allies and its trading partners.

It’s the second major international election since Trump came to power, after Germany, and Canada’s handling of the rupture in the relationship with the United States is being closely watched around the world.

The election also highlighted that Trump’s brand of conservative politics can turn toxic for conservatives elsewhere if they are seen as being too aligned with his ideological and rhetorical style. Poilievre, who railed against “radical woke ideology,” pledged to defund Canada’s national broadcaster and said he would cut foreign aid, seemed to have lost centrist voters, preelection polls suggested.

For Carney, Monday’s victory marked an astonishing moment in his rapid rise in Canada’s political establishment since entering the race to replace Trudeau in January.

A political novice but policy-making veteran, Carney’s measured, serious tone and defiance toward Trump’s aggressive overtures helped sway voters who had been contemplating supporting the Conservatives, according to polls and some individual voters. And his politics as a pragmatist and a centrist seemed to better align with Canada’s mood after a decade of Trudeau’s progressive agenda.

There was ample evidence Monday that Carney’s personality and background had boosted the Liberals. He is a Harvard University- and Oxford-educated economist who served as governor of the Bank of Canada during the 2008 global financial crisis and the Bank of England during Brexit. He later went on to serve on corporate boards and became a leading voice on climate-conscious investment.

Poilievre and other critics tried to frame Carney as an out-of-touch elitist who had spent much of his adult life away from Canada and knew little about the country or its people.

They also attacked Carney for his experience working in China, which has meddled in Canada’s elections, and some of his policy proposals that they said would burden Canada’s public finances and make it harder for the country’s economy to thrive.

Related Articles

Trump administration launches race-based discrimination investigations against Harvard Law Review

Disability-rights arguments grow heated at Supreme Court, though sweeping ruling appears unlikely

Mexico and US reach deal on Rio Grande water sharing

FDA scrutiny of Novavax COVID-19 vaccine sparks uncertainty about other shots

Things to know about the US coal industry and proposed changes under the Trump administration

Despite Monday’s victory, the road ahead for Carney and his new government will be hard. For starters, he will need to actually engage with Trump and his unpredictable attitude toward Canada and discuss fraught issues, including trade and security.

And he will need to show voters that his economic policy credentials can truly be put to use to improve Canada’s slow economic growth and persistently high unemployment.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.