US updates: Trump marks 100 days in office

US President Donald Trump celebrated his first 100 days in office at a rally in the city of Warren in the Midwestern state of Michigan.

Trump's speech at the rally lasted around 90 minutes and was reminiscent of an election campaign event, with the president taking aim at some of his critics, including former President Joe Biden.

Trump spoke in front of a sign reading "The Golden Age" and touted what he saw as his successes, including economic and migration policy.

"We're saving the American dream. We're making America great again and it's happening fast," Trump said.

"We had the greatest economy in the history of our country," Trump said, referring to his first term in office from 2017 to 2021. "We did great, and we're doing better now."

Trump made tackling inflation and boosting the economy a major plank of his campaign for the presidential election in November 2024.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed on Sunday showed that the percentage of respondents who approved of Trump's economic management had declined to 36%.

Trump's announcement that his administration would impose tariffs on dozens of countries around the world has unleashed a wave of economic uncertainty.

South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun is set to travel to Washington on Wednesday for trade talks, the ministry in Seoul said.

Ahn is scheduled to speak with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.

The South Korean ministry said in a statement it would seek exemptions from reciprocal tariffs and import duties on automobiles and steel products.

South Korea is an export powerhouse that has heavily relied on its trade partnership with the US.

President Donald Trump's approval rating has held steady this week as he reached 100 days in office.

However, discontent continues to rise over his handling of the economy and hardline approach to immigration, with concerns about a global trade war and a push to increase deportations, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

The three-day poll completed on Sunday showed 42% of respondents approved of the Republican leader's performance in office, which was unchanged from a prior Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted a week earlier. The share of people who disapprove of his presidency was also steady at 53%.

The percentage of respondents who approve of Trump's economic stewardship declined to 36%, the lowest level in his current term or in his 2017-2021 presidency. 

Fears of a recession have surged in recent weeks as Trump has hiked tariffs so high that economists warn that trade with some countries — notably China — could grind nearly to a halt. The moves have shaken investors and companies.

While inflation accelerated under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, the pace of inflation has barely eased under Trump and 59% of respondents in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll disapproved of his handling of the cost of living in America, compared with 32% who approved.

The President scored highest on his performance on immigration than on any other issue Reuters/Ipsos polled on, with 45% of respondents approving his handling of it, Nevertheless, discontent also grew here, with his disapproval rating on the topic ticking 2 points higher to 48%.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,029 U.S. adults nationwide and had a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

China, Brazil and other members of the BRICS grouping have slammed the "resurgence of trade protectionism" at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro dominated by US President Donald Trump's tariffs blitz.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were among the top diplomats of the 11-country grouping attending two days of talks on issues ranging from Trump's trade war to the push for peace in Ukraine.

BRICS, which was founded by Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2009 and now also includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, has become a major counterweight to Western-led groups such as the G7.

It now makes up nearly half of the world's population, and 39% of global GDP.

However, the ministers failed to issue a joint statement, with Brazil instead settled for a declaration summarizing the discussions.

Mauro Vieira, the foreign minister of Brazil which holds the rotating BRICS presidency, said the bloc underscored its "firm rejection" of protectionism, without explicitly referring to Trump. He added there was "absolute consensus" by the group on the subject of "trade conflicts and tariffs," despite the lack of a group statement.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order intended to reduce the economic hit from multiple "overlapping" tariffs on automakers.

The tariff structure will reportedly lower some import duties imposed on foreign parts used in vehicles manufactured in the US.

"President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign auto producers and he's committed to bringing back auto production to the US," US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent had said early in the day during the daily White House briefing.

"So we want to give the automakers a path to do that quickly, efficiently and create as many jobs as possible," Bessent added.

Former US Republican Senator David Perdue was confirmed as the next US ambassador to China.

This comes as the two countries are involved in a crisis over tariffs.

Perdue, who served one term as a US senator from Georgia, was confirmed 67-29 with some Democratic support. 

A former businessman, called the relations between US and China the "most consequential diplomatic challenge of the 21st century," adding the US' approach to China should be "nuanced, nonpartisan and strategic."

The Donald Trump administration put 145% tariffs on Chinese products earlier this month, with China retaliating with its own 125% tariffs.

Perdue's nomination marked a return to the frequent practice over recent decades of sending former politicians to the US embassy in Beijing, after Democratic President Joe Biden tapped veteran diplomat Nicholas Burns in 2021.

US Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth said he had disbanded a program intended for supporting women in security institutions.

In a post on X, Hegseth called the Women, Peace & Security program a "UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left wing activists."

According to Hegseth, troops "hate" the program.

The program was a bipartisan legislation signed into law by current US President Donald Trump in 2017, during his first term in office.

Trump's own Cabinet officials supported the program back then.

Hegseth later took to his X account again to emphasize that the program was "distorted and weaponized" by the "woke and weak" Joe Biden administration.

Amazon said it will not show its customers how much the tariffs put by US President Donald Trump have contributed to the price of its products. 

According to Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle, the move "was never approved and is not going to happen."

Doyle did say that the idea had been considered by the team that runs Amazon's low cost store regarding certain products.

The White House criticized Amazon for its plans to show the contribution of the tariffs in products' prices, calling it a "hostile and political act."

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has previously used his position as owner of the Washington Post to halt the newspaper's recommendation to vote for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. 

Consumer confidence in the US has gone down to its lowest level since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, according to an index by The Conference Board.

The Board's consumer confidence index went down to 86.0 in April, the lowest since May 2020, plunging from 93.9 in March.

Senior economist Stephanie Guichard said in a statement this was the fifth month in a row, adding that the three expectation components, business conditions, employment prospects and future income, "all deteriorated sharply."

According to Guichard, the result represents "pervasive pessimism about the future."

This reflects concerns about US President Donald Trump's plans to apply tariffs.

The Conference Board said that the explicit mentions of Trump's tariffs in write-in responses had reached an all-time high.

"Notably, the share of consumers expecting fewer jobs in the next six months (32.1%) was nearly as high as in April 2009, in the middle of the Great Recession," Guichard said.

Denmark's King Frederik arrived in Greenland on Tuesday amid repeated calls by President Donald Trump and his administration for the United States to take control of the semi-autonomous territory.

Greenland officially belongs to Denmark but has self-rule over most of its internal affairs, while foreign affairs and defense are managed from Denmark.

Trump has indicated he wants control of Greenland to help counter the threat of Russia and China in the Arctic and potentially tap into its vast natural resources.

Frederik's trip to the island's capital city of Nuuk follows the new Greenlandic prime minister's visit to Copenhagen earlier this week. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen accompanied the monarch to Nuuk.

During his visit to Copenhagen, Nielsen said the Arctic territory will never be a "piece of property" to be bought. He criticized President Donald Trump's comments on seizing the Danish autonomous territory as lacking respect but said he would be willing to meet the US leader for talks.

US President Donald Trump will be signing an executive order on auto tariffs on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a news briefing.

Trump, who is set to hold a rally in Michigan to mark 100 days since taking office, is expected to announce a tariff structure to lower some import duties imposed on foreign parts used in vehicles manufactured in the US.

"President Trump has had meetings with both domestic and foreign auto producers and he's committed to bringing back auto production to the US," US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said at the daily White House briefing.

"So we want to give the automakers a path to do that quickly, efficiently and create as many jobs as possible," Bessent added.

American automotive giant General Motors meanwhile appears to have adopted a wait-and-see approach with the company on Tuesday deciding to pull its annual forecast and move its investor call to Thursday, before commenting on changes to tariff policy. 

Immigration is a top issue for President Donald Trump in his second term, and his hardline policies have taken up much of his first 100 days in office.

On Monday night, he signed his latest executive order dealing with immigration, focusing on "sanctuary cities" that defy his policies.

The order requires officials to publish a list within 30 days of states and local authorities that block the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Those on the list risk losing certain federal funding.

Trump declared a national emergency after taking office, on the false and misleading premise that migrants were invading the US, driving up crime, and that foreign countries were sending their prisoners here.

He stripped legal immigration status from thousands of people, including some individuals with asylum and foreign students.

He also surged troops to the southern border and launched a crackdown to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.

Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told reporters there has been "unprecedented success" in the border effort and "we're going to keep doing it, full speed ahead."

About 139,000 people have been removed so far, according to the White House.

However, deportation numbers have been largely similar to those under President Joe Biden.

According to the Washington Post, his administration is working on strategies to deport one million immigrants in one year, ostensibly surpassing previous statistics.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals won Canada's federal election. 

This marks a comeback for the Liberals, who had been staring down the barrel of an electoral defeat this year before former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stepped down in January.

At the same time, Donald Trump returned to the White House and began to agitate Canadians with his brash political rhetoric.

Two of Trump's actions riled Canadians in particular: Remarks about annexing their country and incorporating it into the US as a "51st state" and starting a tariff war, with 25% duties imposed on most of Canada's exports crossing the border. 

The election became a choice about who best could deal with Trump. 

Carney, the former top banker, stood up to Trump on the campaign trail and seemingly convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.  

Following his victory, Carney told his supporters that Canada will "win this trade war" with the US. 

"We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons," Carney said, warning that there were challenging days ahead.

Donald Trump's second presidency began on January 20, 2025, bringing significant changes to US politics in just 100 days.

His administration has made drastic shifts in foreign policy, imposed tariffs, and faced criticism for actions like restricting press freedom and deporting immigrants.

Despite promises to end the war in Ukraine, the conflict continues, and Trump's approach has strained relations with allies.

His immigration policies and economic measures have had mixed results, with some successes and ongoing challenges. 

Click here to read more about what promises has he kept, and what Americans think about their country in transition.