Pride, defiance and jubilation among Trump supporters at rally to mark his first 100 days in office

The Vietnamese immigrant Trahn, 59, is more than just a Donald Trump voter: he’s devoted to the president. “It’s not that I support him 100 percent, I support him 1 million percent,” says this man, who has attended more than 50 of the Republican’s rallies. For this particular event held on Tuesday at Macomb Community College, on the outskirts of Detroit, to mark the 47th president’s first 100 days in office, Trahn is wearing a white suit with a large image of his idol that seems to call for a third Trump term: next to the upcoming election year, 2028, is the phrase “Success will be my revenge.” What are Trahn’s preferred administration policies during these first 100 days? He does not hesitate in his answer: a tough line against illegal immigration and tariffs, to “prevent others from taking advantage of us.”

For this immigrant, the rally came at a very special time: Wednesday, in addition to marking Trump’s first 100 days in office, also marks the anniversary of the fall of Saigon, which forced his family to flee Vietnam and start a new life in the United States. “We already had to flee communism once; we don’t want to see socialism take over our second homeland,” he maintains, sounding fully convinced.

Like Trahn, dozens of people were lining up since early Tuesday morning outside the community school in the staunchly Republican town of Warren to hear their leader speak. The vast majority wore red T-shirts—the color of the Republican Party—or the red, black, or gold baseball caps emblematic of Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. Others wore pants with the stars and stripes of the American flag, T-shirts with a photograph of Trump after the assassination attempt last year in Butler, Pennsylvania, or large cowboy hats that read “I love Donald Trump.”

Inside the arena, there were no signs of the decline in Trump’s approval ratings in recent days, especially among independents, due to his tariffs, or any fears about the economy, or any perception that he’s trying to grab too much power and ignore the limits imposed by the courts. As the time of Trump’s appearance drew near and the crowd grew in size, chants of “USA, USA, USA” multiplied.

It was a hyperbolic event with all the ingredients of a campaign rally, but in a bigger way. Speaking to a devoted crowd, Trump delivered promises of a more-than-perfect future, a “golden age” of job creation and low inflation. His enumeration of his own self-declared accomplishments, from the imposition of tariffs to mass deportations of migrants described as criminals, also included praise for his own genius: “ I know much more than he does about interest rates, believe me,” he said, without mentioning Fed Chairman Jerome Powell by name.

There were no major legislative announcements or news about his policies for the coming months. Nor was there any hint of political analysis. Instead, there was only language aimed at stirring the emotions of the audience. As was the case during his campaign rallies, his harshest words and the most merciless sarcasm were aimed at his Democratic rivals, especially former president Joseph Biden, about whom he even posed a poll: should he be nicknamed “Sleepy Joe” or “ Crooked Joe”? (the second option was the winner).

For Charlene, who was wearing a T-shirt proclaiming that the Gulf of Mexico is now called the “Gulf of America,” it was her first rally and a very special day because it was also her birthday. “My husband asked me how I wanted to celebrate, and I thought this would be the best way possible,” says this retiree from the Police Department of a neighboring county.

“I think these first 100 days have been excellent,” she maintains, “I’m truly convinced he’s going to help save this country. His executive orders, how he’s stopped illegal immigration at the southern border. I’m very much in favor of tariffs. Of course, it’s going to take a little time, but businesses are going to start producing in this country again, and that’s going to mean more jobs,” she asserts forcefully. And she repeats, almost word for word, the same arguments Trump uses to justify the tariffs: “The rest of the countries were taking advantage of us.”

Like Charlene, the vast majority of the people interviewed listed the drastic reduction in illegal crossings at the southern border and the imposition of tariffs on foreign countries and products as their favorite measures. “We’re going to get steel production going again, things are going to be assembled and processed here,” say Mary and Renée, two workers in the auto sector, the heart of Michigan’s economy and central to the Republican’s economic plans. “The last time he was president, we did very well economically, we made a lot of money, and then the Democrats came and everything went to hell. So we’re really looking forward to seeing how he turns things around,” the two friends maintain.

One issue does seem to divide Trump voters, no matter how enthusiastic they are about their candidate: speculation about a third term, which the Republican has flirted with despite the fact that the U.S. Constitution prohibits any president from serving more than two terms. “Of course I’d like to see him continue,” Renée notes. “But the Constitution doesn’t allow it, and it is what it is. Although I do think someone close to him will run, that’s for sure,” she clarifies.

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