WARREN, Mich. — Portraying Democrats as the defenders of rapists, murderers and terrorists, President Donald Trump marked the first 100 days of his second term with a 90-minute campaign-style rally outside of Detroit on Tuesday, complete with special guest speakers, insults, a propaganda video of immigrants being deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador notorious for its human rights abuses, and the promise to his supporters that “our Golden Age has only just begun.”
The crowd cheered as the roughly three-minute video of deported immigrants arriving at the prison with shaved heads played.
But while Trump played the hits his rally crowds have come to expect — bemoaning and lying about his 2020 election loss, railing against immigrants from Latin America and Africa, polling the audience on insulting nicknames for President Joe Biden, attacking the media — he also openly challenged the authority of the courts to provide a check to executive branch power, painting federal judges who rule against him as “communist” radicals aligned with Democrats and his political foes.
Trump’s administration since returning to power has not consistently abided by court rulings as legal battles challenging many aspects of the president’s second term agenda have begun to play out, many in front of judges he appointed during his first term. Both the president and his allies have openly attacked the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, with increasing frequency.
“We cannot allow a handful of communist, radical left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States,” Trump said to the crowd at Macomb County Community College in Warren, Mich. on Tuesday evening. “Judges are trying to take away the power given to the president to keep our country safe, and it's not a good thing, but I hope, for the sake of our country, that the Supreme Court is going to save this because we have to do something.”
A Wisconsin judge on Tuesday was suspended by that state’s high court after the FBI arrested her last week on federal charges for allegedly attempting to help a man evade detention by immigration authorities. When the judge was arrested last Friday, both Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel, who notably crafted an “enemies list” for Trump to target in his second term, took to social media to brag about the arrest.
“These are judges who just want to show how big and important they are,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One last week as he flew to Italy for Pope Francis’ funeral. “They shouldn't be allowed to do it. We have hundreds of thousands of people we want to get out of the country, and the courts are holding us back.”
In other court battles, Trump and administration officials have repeatedly attacked U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, first appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, for initiating contempt proceedings against the administration after they refused to comply with his order to stop deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March.
And last week, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty — appointed by Trump during his first term — said in a court filing he held a “strong suspicion that the Government just deported a U.S. citizen with no meaningful process” after immigration officials deported a 2-year-old U.S. citizen with her mother to Honduras as the child’s father was asking the courts to keep her in the country. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security defended the move, and a hearing is scheduled for May 16.
And while Trump has been more tempered in his criticisms of the Supreme Court, three of whose nine justices were appointed by Trump during his first term, he has consistently urged them to rule favorably and let his administration operate without restriction from the judicial branch.
“Some judge that nobody ever heard of is holding us back. It's very dangerous for our country. I mean, you want to see a country that'll have crime? Let that happen because it's really dangerous for our country and I can't believe the Supreme Court would let that stand,” Trump said during the flight to Italy last week.
Elsewhere in his speech on Tuesday, Trump mocked Biden’s mental acuity and appearance in a bathing suit, called Sen. Bernie Sanders a “lunatic,” and accused Democrats of looking the other way for years “as American women and girls were raped and slaughtered by these monsters,” referring to immigrants. He specifically named Venezuela, Congo, Africa, Asia, South America and the “bad parts of Europe” as where “invaders” were coming from.
The rally came as his administration began the process of labeling Haitian gangs as foreign terror organizations, a move they have used to intensify their efforts targeting other criminal groups from the Americas in the last 100 days.
“They’ve been designated the highest level of terrorist, and that lets us do a lot of things that you wouldn’t be able to do,” Trump said at the rally.
And while Michigan has seen unemployment rise since Trump reclaimed the White House, Trump used his speech to defend his administration’s steep tariffs on cars and auto parts — hours after the White House announced it was softening those.
“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 said, standing before large electronic screens reading “100 Day of Greatness.” He later added: “We’ve just gotten started. You haven’t even seen anything yet.”
Trump and Whitmer share podium at Air National Guard base
Michigan will be important for Republicans in 2026 as their party tries to pick up a Senate seat in the state for the first time in decades and regain control of the governor’s office, with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer term-limited. Multiple competitive House races will also be on the midterm ballot, along with control of the state legislature.
Though she can't run again for the governor's mansion, Whitmer remains in the spotlight as a potential future Democratic presidential candidate. Long a Trump critic, Whitmer has sought to find common ground with the president lately, appearing with Trump at Selfridge Air National Guard Base earlier Tuesday to announce a new fighter jet mission in the economically valuable base.
"I want to thank Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for bringing it also to our attention very strongly," Trump said in brief remarks at the base. "I'm not supposed to do that. She's a Democrat. They say, 'don't do that. Don't have her here.' I said, 'no, she's going to be here.' She's done a very good job, frankly."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.