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    Coal and Gas Plants Kept Open Under Trump’s Energy Emergency

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    The grid operators that draw power from the plants said they never asked for them to remain open, and consumers may have to absorb extra costs.A 63-year-old coal-fired power plant was scheduled to permanently close its doors in Michigan on June 1. So was an oil- and gas-powered plant that was built in the 1960s in Pennsylvania.But at the last minute, the Trump administration ordered both to stay open. The orders came as it pursues a far-reaching plan to boost fossil fuels, including coal, by declaring a national “energy emergency.”The grid operators in Michigan and Pennsylvania said they hadn’t asked for the orders and hadn’t planned on using the plants this summer.The costs to keep the plants open, which could total tens of millions of dollars, are expected to fall on consumers. Experts have said there’s little evidence of a national energy emergency, and 15 states have sued to challenge President Trump’s declaration, which was issued the day he took office.The emergency orders, which came last month, surprised the companies that operate the plants, and they are now scrambling to delay some workers’ retirements and reverse nearly complete plans to shutter their facilities. In Michigan, the plant operator raced to buy enough coal to power operations.The episode marks a highly unusual use of the Energy Department’s emergency powers under the Federal Power Act. In the past, the department has typically issued emergency orders at the request of regional grid operators to stabilize the power supply during extreme weather events and blackouts. More

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      Not just Alcatraz: the notorious US prisons Trump is already reopening

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      Donald Trump’s proposal to reopen Alcatraz, the infamous prison shuttered more than 60 years ago, sparked global headlines over the weekend. But it isn’t the only notorious closed-down jail or prison the administration has sought to repurpose for mass detentions.The US government has in recent months pushed to reopen at least five other shuttered detention facilities and prisons, some closed amid concerns over safety and mistreatment of detainees. While California lawmakers swiftly dismissed the Alcatraz announcement as “not serious” and a distraction, the Trump administration’s efforts to reopen other scandal-plagued facilities are well under way or already complete, in partnership with for-profit prison corporations.The shuttered prisons are being revived for immigration detainees, unlike the US president’s purported plan for Alcatraz, which he claimed on social media would imprison “America’s most ruthless and violent Offenders”.US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has sought to reopen the California city correctional facility, a state prison in the southern California desert region that closed last year, according to government contract records. The facility is owned by CoreCivic, a longtime Ice detention partner, and previously housed more than 2,000 people.California Democrats have also warned that Ice was interested in reopening Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Dublin, a US prison shuttered last year amid scandals surrounding systemic sexual abuse by staff, and concerns about mold and asbestos. The correctional officers’ union has reported that staff were recently forced to do maintenance work at Dublin in hazardous conditions, seemingly to prepare for a reopening, but Ice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP), which runs Dublin, have not commented on plans.Communities in California, the country’s most populous state and home to nearly a quarter of immigrants in the US, have long opposed Ice detention centers, and there are currently no Ice jails in the state north of Bakersfield in the Central Valley, said Susan Beaty, senior attorney for the California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice.View image in fullscreen“When there are fewer beds for Ice to incarcerate people, there are fewer arrests and less enforcement,” said Beaty, who represents people in Ice and BoP detention. “We don’t want Ice to expand their ability to cage our community members, because we know that will lead to more incarceration and allow them to terrorize our communities even further.”In rural Lake county, Michigan, Geo Group, another prison corporation, is reopening the closed North Lake correctional facility, which has capacity for 1,800 people and would be the largest immigration detention center in the midwest, according to the local news site MLive.com. Over the years, the facility has housed imprisoned teenage boys, out-of-state incarcerated people and immigrants. But it has sat dormant since it closed in 2022 under the Biden administration.In 2020, detainees at North Lake went on a hunger strike, alleging they were denied access to their mail and religiously appropriate food, their complaint paperwork was destroyed, and they were placed in extended solitary confinement. Geo Group denied the claims at the time.In Newark, New Jersey, Geo Group has recently reopened the closed Delaney Hall facility for immigration detainees even as the company faces a pending lawsuit from the city alleging it failed to file required construction permits or allow inspectors inside, according to news site NorthJersey.com.“They are following the pattern of the president … who believes that he can just do what he wants to do and obscure the laws,” Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, said on Monday.Christopher Ferreira, a Geo Group spokesperson, said in an email that the firm had a “valid certificate of occupancy” and complied with health and safety requirements. The mayor’s opposition was “another unfortunate example of a politicized campaign by sanctuary city and open borders politicians in New Jersey to interfere with the federal government”, he added.In a December 2024 earnings call, Geo Group said it was in “active discussions” with Ice and the US Marshals Service about their interest in six of its facilities that were idle.In Leavenworth, Kansas, CoreCivic is working to reopen an immigration detention center closed in 2021 under Joe Biden. The proposal for the Midwest Regional Reception Center (MRRC) has sparked backlash from the city of Leavenworth, which sued CoreCivic in March, alleging the company has not followed the proper permitting protocols.View image in fullscreenIn 2021, the ACLU alleged that the Leavenworth facility was beset by problems, including frequent stabbings, suicides and contraband, and that “basic human needs [were] not being met”, with food restricted, contact with counsel and family denied or curtailed, limited medical care and infrequent showers. A federal judge called the facility a “hellhole”.Ryan Gustin, a CoreCivic spokesperson, defended the company’s decades of operations in Leavenworth in an email on Monday, saying understaffing amid the pandemic “was the main contributor to the challenges” and “the issues were concentrated in about an 18-month period”: “We’re grateful for a more stable labor market post-pandemic, and we’ve had a positive response with nearly 1,400 [applicants] expressing interest in one of the 300 positions the facility will create.“At any of our facilities, including MRRC, we don’t cut corners on care, staff or training, which meets, and in many cases exceeds, our government partners’ standards,” he said. He also pointed to a recent op-ed by the warden, who argued the facility “is and always has been properly zoned”.CoreCivic also reopened a family detention center in Texas last month.The use of shuttered prisons is just one way Ice is expanding detention for Trump’s mass deportations. He has also moved immigration detainees into BoP facilities currently housing criminal defendants, causing concerns about poor conditions, rights violations and a lack of basic resources as staff manage multiple populations under one roof. Trump has also pushed to expand local jail contracts and use military bases for Ice.Eunice Cho, senior staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project, which has obtained public records on Ice’s expanding detention, said Ice was ignoring safety concerns in previously shuttered facilities.“This is a continuing pattern of the Trump administration’s willingness to knowingly place immigrants in detention facilities already well-known for having dangerous conditions,” she said. “They’re putting people in facilities where the conditions are so dire … that people simply give up their valid claims of relief to stay in the United States.”There is growing local backlash to these facilities, Cho added: “When people realize what is happening in these facilities, it’s not something they want to see up close. People are becoming very aware that billions of dollars are being spent to enrich private prison companies to hold people in abysmal conditions … including their neighbors, co-workers and friends.”Ice did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.Donald Murphy, a BoP spokesperson, did not answer questions about the reported reopening of Dublin for Ice. William K Marshall III, BoP director, said in a statement that the bureau would “vigorously pursue all avenues to support and implement the president’s agenda” and had ordered an “immediate assessment” to determine “our needs and the next steps” for Alcatraz: “We look forward to restoring this powerful symbol of law, order, and justice.”Corene Kendrick, ACLU National Prison Project deputy director, dismissed Trump’s Alcatraz statement as a “stunt”, noting that the prison’s cellblock has no running water or sewage and limited electricity.“I don’t know if we can call it a ‘proposal’, because that implies actual thought was put into it,” she said. “It’s completely far-fetched and preposterous, and it would be impossible to reopen those ancient, crumbling buildings as anything resembling a functioning prison.” More

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      This hockey town in Michigan has deep ties to Canada. Then came Trump’s tariffs

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      There are few entities that embody the close, fraternal ties between the US and Canada quite like the Saginaw Spirit junior ice hockey team.In a place whose fortunes have been more down than up in recent decades, the Dow Event Center hockey arena in Saginaw, Michigan, comes alive with more than 5,000 fans once these young stars take to the ice. A huge banner depicting the players adorns the main street into the city.Nearly all the players, aged 16 to 20, come from Canada, and stay with local Saginaw families during the regular playing season, which runs from September to April.“They are family, almost literally,” says Jimmy Greene, the Spirit’s vice-president of marketing and community relations, “because players come over here and stay with American families. It’s more than just sport.”One of the top prospects of this year’s National Hockey League entry draft is forward Michael Misa, the Spirit’s 18-year-old Canadian captain. Last year, the Saginaw Spirit won the Memorial Cup of the Ontario Hockey League for the first time. In the season that recently finished, the Spirit played 28 times on Canadian soil.So the fallout from Donald Trump’s tariffs regime on Canadian goods has been felt more keenly in Saginaw than most other communities – as has the fight over the Canadian election, with the US president’s jibes over Canada becoming the US’s 51st state looming over the contest amid a fierce backlash against such comments.“We’ve had this relationship for decades and all of a sudden, in the last couple of months, it’s been uprooted,” says Greene.“Of course, you’re going to be concerned because you just don’t know [what will happen next]. At some point, it’s going to end up costing us. I just don’t know what extent and by how much.”As the largest city in the northern half of Michigan located within a short drive of three Canadian border crossings, Saginaw has closer ties to Canada than perhaps any other community of its size. Canadian companies own close to 4,000 acres (1,600 hectares) of farmland in the county, and last year, Saginaw established its first sister-city ties with a Canadian counterpart.What’s more, it is a key political bellwether and manufacturing county that helped push Donald Trump over the line in last November’s presidential election, but today the community faces uncertainty around the trade war with Canada.Michigan, with its vast automotive manufacturing industry, is set to be affected by Trump’s trade battle with Canada more than perhaps any other US state.After Trump announced 25% tariffs on Canadian vehicles and parts – with some exemptions – Ottawa responded with its own 25% tariff on certain US automotive products. Canada says the tariffs are unjustified, but on 23 April Trump warned that the tariff figures could go up.While Trump has claimed the US doesn’t need goods produced by its northern neighbor, Canada buys more American products than any other country, at $356bn worth of purchases. Nearly 40% of Michigan’s exported goods go to Canada. In 2023, $1.7bn worth of goods made in the Saginaw metropolitan area were exported, one of the highest amounts for any Michigan city, with much of that sent to Canada.Nexteer Automotive employs around 5,000 people in Saginaw while Means Industries, an automotive parts company headquartered in the city, also has a base in London, Ontario. Repeated calls and emails sent by the Guardian to Saginaw’s chamber of commerce seeking information on specific local industries potentially affected by the tariffs were not responded to.‘Sport right now triumphs over politics’Saginaw is no stranger to economic ups and downs.On a recent Friday afternoon, the downtown area is almost dead. Despite the recent success of the hockey team, there isn’t a sports bar for blocks in any direction as most of Saginaw’s commercial activity is now concentrated around miles of strip malls north of downtown.For Brad Pyscher, an officer at a correctional facility and former union president who, on a recent Saturday afternoon, is manning the Saginaw county Republican party office in one of these strip malls, the tariffs on Canada were something of a shock.“People are concerned, and they hope this works itself out,” he says. “The shock and awe [of the tariffs] really took everyone by surprise.”The 54-year-old says he had voted independent all his life before backing Democrat Barack Obama, and then Trump for president in 2016.“The thing with Trump, whether you like him or don’t like him, there’s transparency,” he says. “I’m drawn to him because he is not a politician.”But Pyscher concedes that Trump could have negotiated with Canada before “hitting them with that shock and awe. I think it’s on purpose, to let the world know he can do it,” he says.“[With] Canada, it should have been negotiated a bit better, a lot better. I’m expecting the deals with Canada to come soon, and we can all put this behind us.”Trump has said one of his main motivations for issuing tariffs on Canada was to stop the flow of illicit drugs into the US. However, reports indicate the opposite may be happening. Last month, $11m worth of cocaine was seized at the Port Huron border crossing, 80 miles (130km) east of Saginaw – on its way into Canada. In December, around 1,000lb (450kg) of cocaine were also seized in a semi-truck attempting to enter Ontario from the same border crossing.Back in the world of ice hockey, Greene of Saginaw Spirit says he feels most people he interacts with have been able to park their political feelings, starting with the organization’s Canadian players, who have been essential to the team’s recent success.“I think we all made a concerted effort, while not to keep [the players] dumb and naive, we did enough to make them feel comfortable in our environment and away from the political stuff. We kept them in a mindset of sport,” he says.But Greene also realizes the strained ties with Canada fueled by the White House’s policies are a very real dynamic.“I’m not immune to the idea that at some point Canada had some hostile feelings towards us, but people have, until this point, been able to park the politics away from sport. I think sport right now triumphs over politics,” he says.“Because we play in Canada, and [because of] the tariffs. I’m more concerned about how they feel about us. Our feelings towards Canada have been and always will be favorable and friendly. I’m concerned not just because of the economic tariffs, but because of the emotions that come from that. I’d be foolish to pretend otherwise.”Saginaw residents are hoping the kind of fraternal ties that were on display across the city last May, when hundreds of Canadian hockey fans from as far away as Saskatchewan descended on the region for the Memorial Cup, won’t become a thing of the past.“Everybody’s been super friendly. You guys have been incredible hosts,” one Canadian hockey fan who drove 11 hours from Quebec for the tournament told local media. More

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      ‘He loves us and he’s doing it’: Trump fans’ faith undimmed by first 100 days

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      In Trump they trust. While pundits and protesters have called it 100 days of hell, talk to Donald Trump’s most faithful supporters and you will hear them use words such as “amazing”, “fantastic” and “ecstatic” about his presidency.The Trump base, that amorphous group that has long intrigued pollsters, remains rock solid in its support for the 78-year-old and quite ingenious in finding new ways to eulogise his leadership.Interviews with 10 Trump fans at a campaign-style rally in Warren, Michigan, on Tuesday seemed to occupy a different planet from opinion polls that give him the lowest 100-day job approval rating of any president in the past 80 years.Seen through the lens of Maga, Trump is steering the economy to a new golden age, making streets safer by expelling illegal immigrants and protecting rather than undermining democracy. Short-term pain, his supporters insist, is a price worth paying for long-term gain.“The first 100 days have been fantastic,” said Dave Bono, a construction manager. “He’s gotten so much done in that amount of time, more than any other president for sure. I know there’s differences on his policy positions but overall, as somebody who’s supported him, I think he’s spot on.”View image in fullscreenThe 60-year-old added: “He’s done what he promised he’d do in the campaign, which is far and away different from most politicians. Like it or not, he’s doing what he said he would do and that’s all anybody can ask for.”Elsewhere at the rally Matt Ball, 53, a commercial driver, was wearing a red “Make America great again” cap and a “Fight, fight, fight” T-shirt showing Trump with fist raised after last year’s assassination attempt. He said: “A lot of things I don’t think can be accomplished in a hundred days but what I’ve seen the first hundred days is what I voted for.”The US economy shrank in the first three months of the year, according to official data. Despite acknowledging the potential for short-term price increases, Trump’s supporters generally back his use of tariffs as necessary for the return of manufacturing jobs to the US in general and Michigan in particular.Ball commented: “It can’t be any worse than the chaos we lived through with Joe Biden for four years so I’m willing to take a chance.”Suzanne Jennings, 65, wearing a “Trump 2024 The Sequel” cap, agreed. “I trust him and I totally trust his cabinet,” she said. “People just need to have a bit of patience. Our country was ruined over the past four years. I totally believe he loves America. He loves us and he’s doing it.”Jennings described Trump’s first 100 days as “fantastic because he’s delivered everything he said he would and he’s making our country great again”.All those interviewed by the Guardian expressed admiration for Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, which has taken a chainsaw to federal departments.Lynn Mills, 70, said: “Find the waste. Cut it out. I’m not allowed to run my house with money flying out the windows. Close the window. Turn down the air conditioning. Do you have a budget in your household? We have to adhere to the budget and let’s run this country efficiently.”Trump’s personality cult endures. He is no longer running for office yet Tuesday’s rally came with the familiar paraphernalia. A truck parked outside Macomb Community College proclaimed “Trump won” and “Make America great again” and was adorned with a motorbike, mini Statue of Liberty and signs such as “Build the wall” and “I’m voting for the convicted felon”.Blake Marnell, 60, known as “Brick Suit”, from San Diego, California, has attended numerous Trump campaign events and wore his distinctive brick suit again at Tuesday’s rally. He described himself as “ecstatic” about Trump’s first 100 days.“He’s done an excellent job under the limitations that have been placed upon him. And by that I mean if you look at an area in which he has had unfettered ability to implement his policy, such as reducing the influx across the border, the results are night and day versus the Biden administration, with up to 95% fewer people crossing.”View image in fullscreenTrump has been widely condemned for a draconian immigration policy that has seen alleged gang members snatched off the streets and sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador without due process. The president has suffered a series of rebukes and setbacks from judges. But followers such as Marnell are willing to accept this as collateral damage.He added: “The concerns about due process and deportations are largely coming from the political left and what I would consider to be judicial overreach and unnecessary injunctions. But let’s be realistic. We’ve got 10 million people top end and 8 million people low end that probably should be deported who are here illegally. Statistically, there will be people where there are problems. To expect absolute 100% perfection in 8 million people leaving United States is probably unrealistic.”More than one interviewee contended that the standard of due process is lower for noncitizens. And support for Trump’s approach to border security and immigration was overwhelming. That included Amy Lee, an immigrant from Vietnam who works in insurance and was wearing a Maga hat, a Trump badge and a Stars and Stripes dress that said: “Big tech fake media are the virus.”The 63-year-old said: “Of course you want to vet those people that come in. You want to welcome everyone but then do you want criminals, do you want terrorists to be in your country? You want them to be in your home? Do you want them to be taking over? The crime rate is unbelievable.”View image in fullscreenTrump has sought to expand presidential power at the expense of Congress and the courts and hinted that he could seek a third term in violation of the constitution. This week the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) released a survey of more than 5,000 Americans that found 52% agree Trump is “a dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy”.Attenders at the rally scoff at such criticism. RJ Fishman, 26, who works for a property acquisitions and advisory firm and rates Trump’s start as “amazing”, said: “A dictator doesn’t tell you what he’s going to do and then do it. President Trump said everything he planned to do, from using the Alien Enemies Act, tariffs, down the list, you name it, so to suddenly be surprised?“What dictators do is lock up their political opponents. One party’s been locking up their political opponents. I don’t see President Trump – as much as they accuse him of wanting to – locking up people other than federal judges and state judges who are harbouring illegal aliens. He’s not locking up political opponents.”Ball, the commercial driver, concurred. He said: “I know Donald Trump didn’t force anyone to get a vaccine so, if you’re going to talk about a dictator, then I would say he didn’t force me to get a vaccine when he was president. I haven’t seen any dictatorship.”And noting the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, Lee recalled her family’s experiences under communism to contend that such comparisons are misplaced. “How could people call him a dictator? Look at Mao Zedong from China. Look at Hitler and Fidel Castro. If people lived in a communist country then they would know what dictatorship is. I escaped communism and I know what communism is like.“They dictate how you live your life, where you can go, what you can eat. Rice, sugar and salt: you are limited to buy so much in a month. That’s dictatorship. Here President Trump is wanting to get freedom for the people to live the American dream. If we don’t fight to restore it we’re going to lose it and, once we lose it, kiss it goodbye.” More

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      Justice department sues Michigan and Hawaii over climate suits against big oil

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      The US justice department on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their planned legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by the climate crisis, claiming the state actions conflict with federal government authority and Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda.The suits, which legal experts say are unprecedented, mark the latest of the Trump administration’s attacks on environmental work and raise concern over states’ abilities to retain the power to take climate action without federal opposition.In court filings, the justice department said the Clean Air Act – a federal law authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate air emissions – “creates a comprehensive program for regulating air pollution in the United States and ‘displaces’ the ability of states to regulate greenhouse gas emissions beyond their borders”.The justice department argues that Hawaii and Michigan are violating the intent of the act that enables the EPA authority to set nationwide standards for greenhouse gases, citing the states’ pending litigation against oil and gas companies for alleged climate damage.Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, last year tapped private law firms to go after the fossil fuel industry for negatively affecting the state’s climate and environment.Meanwhile, Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, another Democrat, plans to target fossil fuel companies that he said should take responsibility for their role in the state’s climate consequences, including 2023’s deadly Lahaina wildfire.When burned, fossil fuels release emissions such as carbon dioxide that warm the planet.Both states’ laws “impermissibly regulate out-of-state greenhouse gas emissions and obstruct the Clean Air Act’s comprehensive federal-state framework and EPA’s regulatory discretion”, the justice department’s court filings said.The justice department also repeated the Republican president’s claims of a US energy emergency and crisis. “At a time when states should be contributing to a national effort to secure reliable sources of domestic energy”, Hawaii and Michigan are “choosing to stand in the way”, the filings said.A spokesperson for the office of the Democratic Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer, deferred to Nessel when asked for comment.“This lawsuit is at best frivolous and arguably sanctionable,” Nessel said in a statement, which noted that Michigan had not filed a lawsuit. “If the White House or big oil wish to challenge our claims, they can do so when our lawsuit is filed; they will not succeed in any attempt to pre-emptively bar our access to make our claims in the courts. I remain undeterred in my intention to file this lawsuit the president and his big oil donors so fear.”Green’s office and the Hawaii attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.But legal experts raised concern over the government’s arguments.Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Columbia University Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said usual procedure was for the justice department to ask for a court to intervene in pending environmental litigation – as is the case in some instances across the country.While this week’s suits are consistent with Trump’s plans to oppose state actions that interfere with energy dominance, “it’s highly unusual”, Gerrard told the Associated Press. “What we expected is they would intervene in the pending lawsuits, not to try to pre-empt or prevent a lawsuit from being filed. It’s an aggressive move in support of the fossil fuel industry.“It raises all kinds of eyebrows,” he added. “It’s an intimidation tactic, and it’s telling the fossil fuel companies how much Trump loves them.”Ann Carlson, an environmental law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has previously consulted on climate litigation, said this week’s lawsuits look “like DoJ grasping at straws”, noting that the EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin, said his agency was seeking to overturn a finding under the Clean Air Act that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.“So on the one hand the US is saying Michigan, and other states, can’t regulate greenhouse gases because the Clean Air Act does so and therefore pre-empts states from regulating,” Carlson said. “On the other hand the US is trying to say that the Clean Air Act should not be used to regulate. The hypocrisy is pretty stunning.”The Trump administration has aggressively targeted climate policy in the name of fossil fuel investment. Federal agencies have announced plans to bolster coal power, roll back landmark water and air regulations, block renewable energy sources, and double down on oil and gas expansion. More

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      Trump warns ‘nothing will stop me’ at rally to celebrate 100 days in office

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      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.”Trump defended his use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime authority that allows the president to detain or deport the citizens of an enemy nation, to expel foreign terrorist from the US as quickly as possible. Then he took aim at that courts that have blocked many of his moves during the first 100 days.“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, with evident frustration. “Judges are trying to take away the power given to the president to keep our country safe.“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. These people are just looking to destroy our country. Nothing will stop me in the mission to keep America safe again.”In a darkly theatrical touch, Trump encouraged the crowd to watch big screens that showed mainly Venezuelan alleged gang members deported from the US arriving last month in El Salvador and having their heads shaved or being manhandled by guards.The video, originally shared by El Salvador’s authoritarian president Nayib Bukele, was accompanied by moody music reminiscent of a thriller. Once it was over the big screens offered the simple message, “100 days of greatness”, while the crowd cheered raucously and broke into chants of: “USA! USA! USA!”The arena was surrounded by banners that read, “Investing in America”, “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”, “The Golden Age”, “Buy American, Hire American” and “The American Dream is Back”. Trump’s supporters held signs with slogans such as: “Make America Great Again” and “Golden Age of America”. Michigan’s unemployment rate has risen for three straight months.One person behind the president waved a “Trump 2028”, banner even though he is constitutionally barred from serving a third term. At one point Margo Martin, a White House aide, joined the president on stage and asked: “Trump 2028, anybody?” The crowd roared.Before the rally, warm-up tracks included It’s A Man’s World by James Brown and Luciano Pavarotti, Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor and YMCA by Village People. There were video clips of Elton John and the Who singing Pinball Wizard in the movie Tommy, and factory worker turned country singer Oliver Anthony performing Rich Men North of Richmond.View image in fullscreenYet despite the ostensible celebration of his election win and hugely consequential first 100 days, Trump spent much of the rally in campaign mode, fixated on past grudges and grievances.He mocked Biden’s mental acuity and even how he appears in a bathing suit, repeated the lie that he won the 2020 election and sought to discredit polling and news coverage unflattering to him. “When you watch the fake news you see fake polls,” he said, without evidence. “In legitimate polls I think we’re in the 60s, the 70s.”Trump defended his administration’s steep tariffs on cars and auto parts, hours after the White House announced it was softening them. He boasted of ending diversity, equity and inclusion “bullshit” across the federal government and private sector, and of making it official government policy that there are only two genders.He reiterated support for the beleaguered defence secretary Pete Hegseth, telling the crowd: “I have so much confidence in him. The fake news is after him, but he’s a tough cookie. They don’t know how tough he is.”Trump also heaped praise on his billionaire ally Elon Musk and his “department of government efficiency”, or Doge, and condemned the backlash against the Tesla and SpaceX entrepreneur: “It’s not fair what they’ve done to him. That is a disgrace.”The rally featured guest speeches by Brian Pannebecker, a retired car worker who pitched a book he is writing about his support of Trump, and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who said earnestly: “Thank you, President Trump, for being the greatest president in American history.”Democrats take a different view. 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.” More

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      Democrat Gretchen Whitmer tries to distance herself from Oval Office visit

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      The Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer – considered to be a 2028 White House Democratic contender – was trying to distance herself from a recent Oval Office appearance alongside Donald Trump, which saw her get photographed while blocking her face with binders.Whitmer visited the Republican president on Wednesday alongside a bipartisan delegation to discuss a northern Michigan ice storm, the state’s defense assets and tariffs, among other issues. Following the meeting, Whitmer was brought into the Oval Office where she – as the New York Times described – “stood glumly” during a press conference that saw Trump sign several executive orders that targeted his political opponents.In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for Whitmer said the governor was caught off guard by the media appearance.“The governor was surprised that she was brought into the Oval Office during president Trump’s press conference without any notice of the subject matter,” the Whitmer spokesperson said. “Her presence is not an endorsement of the actions taken or statements made at that event.”The Whitmer administration’s efforts to distance her from the press conference came after the president praised her, saying: “We’re honored to have Gretchen Whitmer from Michigan, great state of Michigan, and she’s been, she’s really done an excellent job, very good person.”The comments marked a shift from his public comments made about the governor five years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic.At the time, Trump said he had a “big problem” with the “young, a woman governor” in Michigan, adding that “all she does is sit there and blame the federal government”.Whitmer, meanwhile, blamed Trump for a failed plot to kidnap her that was devised by rightwing extremists – a case that led to nine convictions.Speaking to reporters at a college event in Michigan after Wednesday’s press conference, Whitmer said: “It was not where I wanted to be or planned to be or would have liked to have been.“I disagree with a lot of stuff that was said and the actions that were taken. But I stayed in the room because I needed to make the case for Michigan, and that’s my job.”Whitmer nevertheless has been criticized, particularly online, including for blocking her face with binders at one point during the conference while a picture was snapped.One user wrote on X: “She just stood there as he signed executive orders. Democrats, NO ONE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU.”Another person said: “One of my favorite things about things like this is that she would’ve been better off just having her photo taken. ‘(Normal) Gretchen Whitmer in the White House’ would’ve been a lot less embarrassing than ‘(Hiding) Gretchen Whitmer.’”Someone else wrote: “Is [Whitmer] hiding from the press here? Or still hiding from the people of Michigan?”Whitmer’s state is one of the most crucial electoral battlegrounds in the US.With base Democratic voters increasingly criticizing members of their party for not taking a harder line against the Trump administration, Whitmer has said publicly that she does not regard herself as “the leader of the opposition”.In January, she told the Associated Press: “I have shared with some of my colleagues from some of the very blue states that my situation here in Michigan is very different than theirs. I’ve got a Republican House of Representatives – majority-Republican House – now to work with.“I’ve got to make sure that I can deliver and work with folks of the federal government, and so I don’t view myself as the leader of the opposition like some might.”Echoing similar sentiments, Adrian Hemond, the chief executive of the political consulting firm Grassroots Midwest, recently told: “She’s been trying to work with Trump since he got back in office, which is appropriate.“She’s a swing-state governor.”Meanwhile, David Dulio, a political science professor at Michigan’s Oakland University, told the outlet: “It is more a reflection of the state of the Democratic party that a popular Midwestern governor can go to Washington, get some wins on bipartisan issues and get attacked for it by her own people.”Whitmer was first elected as Michigan’s governor in 2018 and then re-elected in 2022 by a wider margin than her first victory. More

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      in US Politics

      Michigan autoworkers wary of Trump’s tariffs: ‘Playing poker with people’s lives’

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      The General Motors Flint Assembly plant is a hulking symbol of American auto industry might, a 5m-sq-ft factory stretching as far as the eye can see down Van Slyke Road, and it hums: three shifts almost daily crank out the Silverado truck, the automaker’s most popular product.The plant weathered decades of industrial disinvestment in Flint, a blue-collar city of about 80,000 in mid-Michigan, the nation’s auto capital. Flint Assembly remains an economic cornerstone of a Rust belt region filled with working-class swing voters who helped propel Donald Trump to his second term.The president did well here in part because he promised an industrial revival that will regenerate towns like Flint. On the campaign trail he promised tariffs would achieve this goal. This week the tariff war kicked into a higher gear. The reviews are mixed.Autoworkers, small business owners and residents here say tariffs could help Flint, but many aren’t comforted by what they characterized as Trump’s haphazard approach, higher prices on everyday goods and the prospect of middle-income folks becoming “collateral damage”.“Trump is playing poker, but he’s playing poker with people’s lives at this point,” said Chad Fabbro, financial secretary of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 538 in Flint. Even the union is a house divided. The UAW president, Shawn Fain, supports tariffs, but Fabbro said many of the 5,000-strong rank and file at Flint Assembly see them as “bullshit”.Onshoring industry is a good idea, if well planned, Fabbro added, but an abrupt, full-scale tariff war is “not good for anyone because middle America is going to suffer”.Before Trump partly pulled back on Wednesday, his unprecedented trade war enacted at least 10% tariffs on nearly every country in the world last week, while hitting China, Taiwan and Vietnam with much higher rates. The war with China has escalated.There’s little disagreement about whether the tariffs would cause prices to increase for everyday goods like clothing, electronics and groceries – some estimate it could cost the average US household $3,800.In Flint, the debate seems to be: “Is the president’s political and economic gamble worth it?”The president’s supporters say “yes”, and have pushed variations of a message: any economic pain will be worth the benefits of a restructured world economy. Among them is Brian Pannebecker, a retired Ford employee who started Auto Workers for Trump.“It’s going to cause a little short-term pain, but we’re going to have to endure it for six months or a year, however long it takes,” he said last week. “The workers of this country have been enduring pain for decades as they closed plants down.”But among small business owners in downtown Flint, there’s some doubt about the idea of more pain in one of the nation’s poorest big cities – about 35% live in poverty.“The person who said that must be coming from a place of privilege because it is obvious that they’re going to be OK for the next year or so, but I think a lot of people are not in the same boat, so we have to be mindful of that,” Rebekah Hills, co-owner of Hills’ Cheese, said on Tuesday.Her shop imports about half of its product from countries such as the Netherlands, France and England – the cost of those products would go up 10% under Trump’s latest plan, or more if he changes his mind. “It really sucks because it’s small businesses that suffer the most,” Hills added.Frustration with stubbornly elevated prices – especially among foods – was largely behind a relatively strong Trump showing in 2024 in Genesee county, where Flint is located. He had lost to Biden and Hillary Clinton here by about 10% in the two previous elections, but closed the gap to 4% last year. Just north, in Saginaw county, also part of Michigan’s auto industry heartland, the president edged out Kamala Harris.Democrats in Michigan, some of whom are fiercely critical of free trade agreements, are calibrating their messaging with these things in mind. Among those who support tariffs is US representative Debbie Dingell, whose district near Detroit is home to many rank-and-file autoworkers.“I think tariffs are a tool in the toolbox so that we are competing on a level playing field with China, who subsidizes production, owns the companies and doesn’t pay a decent wage,” Dingell recently told WDET. “But it can’t be done chaotically.”Trump’s approach was damaging the economy, she said, but she also noted that 90% of the nation’s pharmaceuticals are imported, and onshoring that kind of production was a good idea. But, Dingell added, “you can’t do it overnight”.On Wednesday, just after Trump pulled back on most tariffs, the conservative-leaning Michigan political analyst Bill Ballenger said he wasn’t surprised by the abrupt announcement. The tariff rollout wasn’t going well for Republicans in Michigan or nationally, he said. It was more “too much, too soon” from the administration.“The public understands the tariffs and they get his overall goal and mission, but the way he’s implementing them seems incoherent,” Ballenger said. However, what that may mean in 19 months when the next elections happen is anyone’s guess, he added.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWill Flint be OK?Alan Jackson, a retiree from an auto supplier, echoed the president’s line. “Why does China and everyone else get to take advantage of us? Why do they get to screw us? I’m glad someone is standing up to that.”Jackson dismissed the fears of higher prices and economic damage. “People will be fine – it’s worth it,” he added.But polls showed a major drop in Trump’s approval rating, and in downtown Flint people are worried.The Flint farmers’ market, in a repurposed newspaper printing press building, is a local economic hub where a half-million people annually shop for everything from locally grown produce to local jerky.But many here partly rely on imports. Tony Vu, a restaurateur and leader in the local food system, is about to reopen his Vietnamese restaurant, MaMang. The uncertainty is generating fear of supply chain shortages, Vu said: “It seems like deja vu, but with no end in sight.”The tariffs especially take a toll on south-east Asian, Latino and other chefs of color importing goods that can’t be produced here – avocados don’t grow in Flint, Vu noted, and Michigan’s growing season is only five months long. Imports are essential.A case of fish sauce, a staple of Vietnamese cuisine, went from about $82 to $100 just on the speculation that tariffs were increasing, highlighting another problem – some companies use disruptions to the economy as an excuse to raise prices, even if they don’t need to.“It’s going to take an industry that already operates on thin margins and is really hard, and it’s going to create more pressure,” Vu said. “If businesses are not quick enough to adapt, then it’s going to be a death blow.”At d’Vine Wines, with shelves full of bottles from France and Italy, manager Aaron Larson said on Tuesday he was not totally sure what to make of the tariffs yet, but he doesn’t trust Trump. Fabbro, of the UAW, pointed to massive increases in Canadian aluminum prices that were a threat to Michigan’s robust craft brewery industry. Meanwhile, his neighbors where he lives in rural Vassar, a few miles north of Flint, grow soybeans they sell to China.About 40% of US soybean exports go to China, which just hit them with an 84% tariff on all US goods (later raised to 125%). They’re scared, Fabbro said.‘That’s how capitalism works’Auto Workers for Trump’s Pannebecker said that corporations should “absorb” some increased costs, and added that the unions are trying to have it both ways – they want higher wages but they want cars to be affordable. Something might have to give, he said.“The market will settle itself out because that’s how capitalism works,” he said.The president’s supporters trust his judgment.“He’s a shrewd businessman, right? That’s why people vote for him, so I say let’s give it a chance, but if the cost of everything goes up then maybe he has to pull back at some point,” said Russ, an autoworker at the farmers’ market who would only give his first name.At the UAW local hall across from the Flint Assembly plant, Fabbro isn’t convinced, and fears layoffs. “It’ll only be a few years? OK, don’t feed your kids for a few years. Sell your boat and home and everything you’ve worked for because you’re willing to be a bargaining chip,” he said. More