By MICHELLE L. PRICE and CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday opened a weeklong celebration of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office by focusing on his border crackdown, an area of relative strength for the president at a time when there are red flags for him in the latest round of polling.
Yard signs with mugshots of immigrants who have been accused of crimes like rape and murder were posted across the White House lawn, positioned so they would be in the background of television broadcasts outside the West Wing. Tom Homan, Trump’s top border adviser, told reporters that there has been “unprecedented success” on the border effort and “we’re going to keep doing it, full speed ahead.”
Immigration is Trump’s leading issue in public opinion surveys, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a morning briefing the administration is in “the beginning stages of carrying out the largest deportation campaign in American history.”
About 139,000 people have been removed so far, according to the White House. Deportations have occasionally lagged behind Democrat President Joe Biden’s numbers, but Trump officials reject the comparison as not “apples to apples” because so many fewer people are crossing the border now.
Later on Monday, Leavitt held a second briefing exclusively for “new media,” where Trump-aligned social media influencers asked friendly questions and applauded at the end.
Tuesday will be Trump’s 100th day in office, and the Republican president plans to mark the day in Michigan, where he will hold a rally in Macomb County, an automotive hub north of Detroit. After relatively little travel so far in his term, Trump will also deliver a commencement address Thursday at the University of Alabama.
Trump is also doing a number of interviews timed to the 100-day mark, including an Oval Office interview with ABC News that is to air Tuesday night. He’s also talked with journalists from The Atlantic magazine, a publication that he’s frequently attacked for its critical reporting.
Trump told The Atlantic that he feels more powerful in his second turn in the White House. His administration is stocked with loyalists, and he’s become even more confrontational with a judicial system that at times serves as a check on his agenda.
“The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
Presidents have marked the initial 100 days of their terms since Franklin Delano Roosevelt moved swiftly to counter the Great Depression after taking office in 1933.
Trump wasn’t so bullish about the idea during his first term, when he was plagued by setbacks, investigations and turnover in his ranks, at that time calling the 100-day mark ” an artificial barrier.”
But now he’s trying to harness the moment to mark the ambitious agenda he’s pursued in his first months. Leavitt said Trump had already signed almost as many executive orders as Biden did during his entire term.
But many Americans believe Trump has mostly been focused on the wrong priorities.
Americans are nearly twice as likely to say Trump has been mostly focusing on the wrong priorities as to say he has been focusing on the right ones, according to an AP-NORC survey, and only about half of Republicans say he’s mostly had the right focus. Another one-quarter of Republicans say it’s been about an even mix of right and wrong priorities, and about 1 in 10 say he’s focusing on the wrong things.
And among Trump’s own supporters, the share of Republicans who say he has been at least a “good” president has fallen about 10 percentage points since January.
Other polls conducted in recent weeks have found similar levels of dissatisfaction with Trump’s first few months, particularly with his economic policies and approach to tariffs.
Trump lashed out at the results on social media as “FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS.”
As he’s pushed to crack down on illegal immigration, Trump has drawn criticism as he has strained the limits of executive power, attacked judges who’ve ruled against him, sent hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a mega-prison in El Salvador in defiance of a court order and balked at a Supreme Court order that his administration must facilitate the return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
His plans to carry out a mass deportation have not yet shaped up, but the White House is ramping up efforts to encourage people who are in the country illegally to “self-deport,” with actions that include stiffer fines and incentives to leave, including airfare and stipends.
His administration has pointed to the steep drop in the number of illegal border crossings as an early and significant sign of success.
Trump planned to sign at least two executive orders later Monday related to immigration, including one directing state and federal officials to publish a list of “sanctuary city” jurisdictions.
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.