11.01 BST
Trump
warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office
Hello and
welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you
the latest news lines over the next few hours.
Let’s start
with the president’s Michigan rally last night. Donald Trump has celebrated his
100th day in office with a campaign-style rally in Michigan and an attack on
“communist radical left judges” for trying to seize his power, warning:
“Nothing will stop me.”
The
president also served up the chilling spectacle of a video of Venezuelan
immigrants sent from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, accompanied
by Hollywood-style music and roars of approval from the crowd.
Trump’s
choice of Michigan was a recognition not only of how the battleground state
helped propel him to victory over Vice-President Kamala Harris in last
November’s election, but its status as a potential beneficiary of a tariffs
policy which, he claims, will revive US manufacturing.
But the
cavernous sports and expo centre in the city of Warren, near Detroit, was only
half full for the rally, and a steady stream of people left before the end of
his disjointed and meandering 89-minute address.
“We’re here
tonight in the heartland of our nation to celebrate the most successful first
100 days of any administration in the history of our country!” Trump declared.
“In 100 days, we have delivered the most profound change in Washington in
nearly 100 years.”
The 45th and
47th president falsely accused the previous administration of engineering
massive border invasion and allowing gangs, cartels and terrorists to
infiltrate communities. “Democrats have vowed mass invasion and mass
migration,” he said. “We are delivering mass deportation.”
Ken Martin,
chair of the Democratic National Committee, said: “Trump’s pathetic display
tonight will do nothing to help the families he started screwing over 100 days
ago.
“Michiganders
and the rest of the country see right through Trump, and as a result, he has
the lowest 100-day approval rating in generations. If he’s not already
terrified of what the ballot box will bring between now and the midterm
elections, he should be.”
As Trump
defended his broadly unpopular handling of the economy, he criticized Fed chair
Jerome Powell, saying: “I have a Fed person who’s not really doing a good job,
but I won’t say that.” The businessman president who used bankruptcy law to
rescue his failed enterprises six times added: “I know much more about interest
rates than he does”.
Trump
mistakenly attacked the Michigan representative John James, calling the
Republican he had endorsed “a lunatic” for trying to impeach him. That was
someone else.
Trump
supporters praised by the president at a rally included the former member of a
violent cult who founded Blacks for Trump, and a retired autoworker who once
told people to read David Duke’s “honest and fair” book about race.
The US
Department of Justice has begun the first criminal prosecutions of immigrants
for entering a newly declared military buffer zone created along the border
with Mexico, according to court filings.
Trump
called Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos on Tuesday morning to complain about a
report that the company planned to display prices that show the impact of
tariffs. Trump told reporters later that Bezos “was very nice, he was terrific”
during their call, and “he solved the problem very quickly”.
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