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.”
Read our full report of the event here:
In other news:
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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”.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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”.
Key events
‘I have faith that justice will prevail,’ says detained Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi ahead of hearing
Detained Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi has a hearing to request release today, where a judge will decide if he will be released or deported. In his first interview since his arrest, he told NPR: “I have faith that justice will prevail.”
Mahdawi, 34, has been in custody in Vermont since he was arrested on 14 April by masked Ice agents who showed up at an immigration office in Colchester, Vermont, where he had attended his naturalization interview and signed a document pledging allegiance to the US. He has a green card and he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
A lawful permanent US resident who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, Mahdawi is among multiple international students facing deportation by the Trump administration – ostensibly over their advocacy on several campuses against Israel’s war in Gaza.
The justice department on Monday submitted new court filings that included a two-page letter from secretary of state Marco Rubio stating that the “activities and presence of Mahdawi in the United States undermines US policy to combat antisemitism”. It also claimed that protests like those Mahdawi led at Columbia “potentially undermine the peace process underway in the Middle East”, where efforts for a ceasefire have stalled.
The court filing did not provide any evidence of the accusations against Mahdawi in the letter, including those of threatening rhetoric and intimidation of pro-Israeli bystanders. The government argues that the federal court in Vermont should not grant Mahdawi’s request for release because it does not have jurisdiction in foreign policy matters.
In response to the court filings, Mahdawi’s lawyer, Luna Droubi, said the accusations in the letter are “completely false.” Mahdawi has been very vocal in his opposition to antisemitism. She told NPR:
Mr. Mahdawi is a person of complete and full principle who believes in the human dignity of every person. The government’s just scraping at the bottom of the barrel to try to find something, anything that is simply leading to punishment of students for their advocacy for Palestinian rights.
Trump claims fall in GDP has “NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS”
Donald Trump promptly claimed this morning that the contraction in the US economy had nothing to do with his tariff wars and predicted the economy would boom when tariffs kicked in. He wrote on his Truth Social platform:
This is Biden’s Stock Market, not Trump’s. I didn’t take over until January 20th. Tariffs will soon start kicking in, and companies are starting to move into the USA in record numbers. Our Country will boom, but we have to get rid of the Biden “Overhang.” This will take a while, has NOTHING TO DO WITH TARIFFS, only that he left us with bad numbers, but when the boom begins, it will be like no other. BE PATIENT!!!
US economy shrinks in first quarter of Trump 2.0 as sweeping tariffs see consumer sentiment plummet
Lauren Aratani
The US economy shrank in the first three months of Donald Trump’s second term as the president sought to roll out an aggressive trade strategy, claiming that sweeping tariffs on the world would strengthen the US economy.
GDP, a key measure of overall growth in the US economy, fell by 0.3% in the first quarter of the year, down from 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024. The contraction – the first since the start of 2022 – puts the US on the brink of a technical recession, defined by two quarters of negative growth.
The drop in activity comes amid a huge fall in consumer sentiment, which in April dropped 32% to its lowest level since the 1990 recession.
Trump spent much of the first quarter threatening, and fleetingly implementing, sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and targeting China with higher duties on its exports.
Days into the second quarter, which was not covered by today’s GDP reading, he ordered even higher tariffs on goods from much of the world, before pulling back the tariffs on all countries but China. As it stands, Trump is charging a 10% universal tariff on imported goods from much of the world, along with a 145% tariff on imports from China.
Seemingly responding to deep fluctuations in the US stock market, Trump has shelved a wave of so-called “reciprocal tariffs” of up to 49% on specific countries, which he halted for 90 days.
Ukraine expects to sign US minerals deal today – reports
Jakub Krupa
Ukraine expects to sign a much-anticipated minerals deal with the United States today, a senior source in the Ukrainian presidency told AFP.
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko will be in Washington later to sign the agreement, the final draft of which the Ukrainian government “has yet to approve”, the source said, adding that the agreement provides for a “50/50” joint fund between Kyiv and Washington.
Reuters reminds us that the two sides signed a memorandum on 18 April as an initial step towards clinching an accord on developing mineral resources in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials hope that signing the deal promoted by Donald Trump will help to firm up softening American support for Kyiv in the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago, Reuters added.
Trump admits he ‘could’ bring mistakenly deported Kilmar Ábrego García back from El Salvador, but won’t
In the ABC interview last night, Donald Trump admitted that he “could” secure the return of Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man his administration said in court was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, but won’t do so.
Asked what his administration was doing to facilitate Ábrego García’s return to the US, as instructed by the supreme court, Trump said that the lawyer – who has since been put on leave – who said the deportation was a mistake “should not have said that”.
The president then claimed again that Ábrego García is a member of the MS-13 gang and “is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland”. Ábrego García’s lawyers have said he’s not a member of MS-13 and he has not been charged with or convicted of a crime.
Pressed on the rule of law and the supreme court’s order, Moran told Trump, pointing to the phone on the Resolute Desk: “You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk.” Trump replied: “I could.” “You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back right now’,” said Moran. The president replied:
And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. I’m not the one making this decision … You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is.
Trump then blamed lawyers and “the law” for the situation.
His comments appeared to contradict previous remarks from Trump and his top aides who have repeatedly claimed that the US is powerless to return Ábrego García because he is in the custody of a foreign government, despite the supreme court’s ruling. The White House’s position in court has been that only El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, can release a Salvadoran man from a Salvadoran jail.
Judge Paula Xinis, who has set a deadline of 5pm ET today for the administration to provide more to details on his efforts to return Ábrego García to the US, last week accused the Trump administration of “bad faith” in the case, and I’m sure she will find Trump’s latest comments very interesting indeed.
Here’s a clip of the exchange:
Host: You could call and get Abrego Garcia back.
Trump: I could
Host: But the Supreme Court has ordered you to facilitate his release.
Trump: I’m not the one making this decision
Host: You’re the president! pic.twitter.com/guteBMI0im
— FactPost (@factpostnews) April 30, 2025
‘You’re not being very nice’: Trump clashes with ABC interviewer over edited Ábrego García photo
In a pre-recorded interview that went out last night on ABC News to mark his 100th day in office, Donald Trump clashed with reporter Terry Moran over his tariff policies, deportations and the power of the presidency.
In an intense, fiery exchange over the knuckle tattoos of Kilmar Ábrego García – the man the US government deported to El Salvador by mistake – Trump got into a surreal back-and-forth with Moran over whether Ábrego García has the gang name “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles, apparently confusing a photoshopped image he once posted on social media with Ábrego García’s real hands.
It started with Moran pressing Trump on whether he acknowledges that under American law, every person is afforded due process. But Trump claimed that when people come to the country illegally “there’s a different standard”.
“But they get due process,” Moran said.
“Well, they get a process where we have to get ‘em out, yeah,” Trump said. “They get whatever my lawyers say.”
The Trump administration has indicated in court documents that Ábrego García was sent to El Salvador in an “administrative error” but White House officials have since disputed that and the lawyer who wrote that court document has been put on leave. Trump said in the interview that that lawyer “should not have said that”.
He then grew agitated when Moran suggested that the image had been photoshopped.
That was photoshop? Terry, you can’t do that. They’re giving you the big break of a lifetime. You know, you’re doing the interview. I picked you because – frankly I never heard of you but that’s ok. But I picked you, Terry, but you’re not being very nice.
Here is the clip of the exchange:
TRUMP: He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattooed!
MORAN: That was photoshopped
TRUMP: Terry, they’re giving you the big break of a lifetime. I picked you. But you’re not being very nice. pic.twitter.com/NgCpEB8o1S
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 30, 2025
Former vice-president Kamala Harris plans to use a high-profile speech Wednesday to sharply criticize president Donald Trump amid speculation about whether she will mount another presidential campaign or opt to run for California governor.
Harris will address the 20th anniversary gala for Emerge America, an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office that grew in part from Harris’ run for San Francisco district attorney in the early 2000s, AP reported.
Her speech comes the day after Trump reached 100 days in office. It is expected to be her most extensive public remarks since leaving office in January following her defeat to Trump, with planned critiques of the Republican president’s handling of the economy, US institutions and foreign policy.
Harris is ramping up her public presence as Democrats nationally search for a path forward after November’s election, in which Republicans also won control of Congress. While a slate of high-profile Democrats – from governors to businessmen – seek leadership roles within the party, the former vice-president retains unique influence and would reshape any future race she chooses to enter.
Oliver Laughland
The first few months of 2025 have been tumultuous for Sheriff Bill Rogers, the chief law officer of Columbus county in North Carolina.
In February, his department settled a lawsuit accusing Columbus jail deputies of neglecting the care of a county inmate who was almost beaten to death in 2023. Then in March, a group of Roger’s deputies were accused of assault during the arrest of a 57-year-old who claimed he was punched in the back of the head and left bloody after allegedly running a stop sign.
Those episodes follow years of scandal.
In 2023, Rogers’ predecessor in the top job was forced to resign – twice – after recordings emerged of him describing African American deputies on his force as “Black bastards”. The department was also under a recent federal investigation over allegations of sprawling embezzlement.
Despite this track record, the Columbus county sheriff’s office scored a recent win under the new administration of Donald Trump.
The US supreme court is set on Wednesday to hear arguments in a bid led by two Catholic dioceses to establish in Oklahoma the nation’s first taxpayer-funded religious charter school in a major test of religious rights and the separation of church and state in American education.
Organizers of the proposed school and a state school board that backs it have appealed a lower court’s ruling that blocked the establishment of St Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, Reuters reported. That court found that the proposed religious charter school would violate the US constitution’s first amendment limits on government involvement in religion.
Charter schools in Oklahoma are considered public schools under state law and draw funding from the state government. The proposed charter school has divided officials in Republican-governed Oklahoma. It is being challenged by the state’s Republican attorney general Gentner Drummond but Republican governor Kevin Stitt has backed it, as has Republican president Donald Trump’s administration.
St Isidore, planned as a joint effort by the Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and Diocese of Tulsa, would offer virtual learning from kindergarten through high school. Its plan to integrate religion into its curriculum would make it the first religious charter school in the United States. The proposed school has never been operational amid legal challenges to its establishment.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he thinks President Vladimir Putin wants to stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite recent attacks against the beleaguered nation.
Trump responded “I think he does” when asked whether he thinks Putin wants to make peace during an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran.
“If it weren’t for me, I think he’d want to take over the whole country,” Trump said. “I will tell you, I was not happy when I saw Putin shooting missiles into a few towns and cities.”
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.”
Read our full report of the event here:
In other news:
-
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”.
