President Trump marked the first 100 days of his second term on Tuesday at a rally in Michigan in which he celebrated his border crackdown by playing dramatic video of the imprisonment of migrants, and mocked his political opponents as he reveled in their inability to thwart his agenda.
The president spoke to about 3,000 supporters at Macomb Community College, in an area near Detroit seen as key to his electoral victory in the state and emblematic of union workers’ shift from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
Mr. Trump mocked the way his predecessor, Joseph R. Biden Jr., looked in a bathing suit and encouraged to crowd to cheer to indicate which demeaning nickname for him they preferred: “Sleepy Joe” or “Crooked Joe.”
“I miss the campaign,” Mr. Trump said at one point.
The speech had been billed as a way for build momentum around the president’s economic policies. which have been dragging him down politically. The area in which Mr. Trump spoke held signs that said “Buy American. Hire American.”
His expansive tariffs have hurt the stock market and contributed to a drop in his approval rating. A majority of Americans approved of Mr. Trump’s performance in office throughout January and February, but he is now struggling with what polls show is greater public disapproval.
Those in the crowd cheered Mr. Trump’s agenda, and attendees said they supported his efforts to use tariffs to try to bring back manufacturing jobs to areas like Detroit, the home of the U.S. auto industry, which has lost one-third of its population since 2000.
Outside the venue, however, protesters gathered with signs saying, “I dissent.” Two protesters who made it into the rally were removed by security, and the president laughed after calling one of them by the wrong gender.
Mr. Trump also cast himself as a man of action, highlighting the rapid pace of his executive orders. He has signed more than 130 executive orders this year, nearly as many as former President Biden did throughout his four years in office.
Fifty percent of voters in a recent New York Times/Siena College poll said the upheaval Mr. Trump had brought to the nation’s political and economic systems was a “bad thing for the country.” Only 36 percent said the changes were good. And voters said he had “gone too far” on issue after issue: his tariffs, his immigration enforcement, his cuts to the federal work force.
At the rally, Mr. Trump showed little concern about his falling poll numbers, dismissing them as rigged.
The Democratic National Committee issued a statement responding to Mr. Trump’s rally. “While Donald Trump lives in his delusions, Michigan families — along with millions of working families across this country — are forced to live with the consequences of his dangerous, chaotic, and economy-destroying agenda,” said Ken Martin, the D.N.C. chairman.
Before the rally, Mr. Trump attended a bipartisan event at nearby Selfridge Air National Guard Base, at which he held to a more serious tone and announced an infusion of new resources, including 21 new fighter jets, seen as key to keeping the base open.
“This will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of northern American air power,” Mr. Trump said.
There, Mr. Trump credited Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, a Democrat who was criticized by some for her recent visit to the White House, with pushing to save the base. Ms. Whitmer appeared onstage with the president.
Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.
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