President Donald Trump’s first 100 days have been everything from “fantastic” to “horrific,” according to Oakland County voters.
Affluent Oakland County, situated north of Detroit, has consistently supported Democratic presidential candidates in recent cycles and become more Democratic in recent years — the county went 54% to 43% for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris last year. But there are still conservative enclaves in its northern regions, making the area a blend of viewpoints.
The Detroit Free Press, Lansing State Jounal and Center for Community Journalism – Michigan spoke with voters in the region as part of a project interviewing more than 100 Michiganders about Trump’s first 100 days.
Linda Cauley, 68, of Waterford, considered herself an independent until 2016 when she started voting straight Democratic due to President Donald Trump. Cauley said she worries that his policies are hurting working-class people and disadvantaged people. “The destruction of the Department of Education can be harmful, too. My oldest daughter is the principal of a …school. They are the second poorest in the Oakland County area and depend on a lot of money from the state and federal government and I think that (destruction) can be harmful to the students.”
— Jamie L. LaReau
Benjamin Rupwright, 34, of Pontiac, works in real estate investment and identifies with the Republican Party. He supports President Donald Trump’s deregulation moves as a small business employee and hopes to see the policy continue. “Less involvement by the federal government overall, that’s what I’m most excited about,” Rupwright said.
— Jenna Prestininzi
Billy Stevens, a 31-year-old resident of Hazel Park, said he understands what President Donald Trump is trying to do with tariffs but the tariffs have hurt him as a small business owner. Stevens owns a landscaping company and said gas is a major expense in his line of work. He has seen gas prices increase since Trump took office and his 401(k) retirement savings accounts shrink after market turmoil over tariffs. “He’s screwing small business owners,” Stevens told the Detroit Free Press outside a Petco in Warren on April 11. Stevens said he didn’t have time to vote in 2024 because he was busy with work but he would have voted for Trump.
— Adrienne Roberts
Mark Lewis, 68, of Madison Heights, said tariffs “are going to bankrupt me.” Lewis receives food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and he’s worried that the benefits won’t cover as much of his grocery bill as food prices rise.
He’s also noticed battery prices have increased since Trump took office, rising from about $7 to $9.
“I don’t think we Americans are taking it as seriously as we should,” Lewis said recently as he walked into a Target store in Warren. “Namely, a recession, I think, is around the corner.”
Lewis said moving forward, he’d like to see Trump reinstate the fired federal employees.
— Adrienne Roberts
Evan Ellis, 33, of Ferndale, said he identifies as a Democrat-slash-independent. He said he has found the Trump administration’s defiance of courts and the law “terrifying” and is most worried about the future of democracy.
“It’s kind of like what really is the rule of law if the government itself isn’t willing to follow it?” he said.
Though he said he finds almost all of the Trump administration’s actions wrong thus far, Ellis said “there are some diamonds in the rough” in its policies. One of these: Trump’s tariffs against China, he said. Ellis believes these tariffs could help inhibit the country from manufacturing and selling cheap products that end up in landfills.
— Beki San Martin
Henry Lamarr, a 42-year-old artist and illustrator in Ferndale, is an independent who voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. Though Lamarr didn’t vote for President Donald Trump, he said he’s willing to give him a shot. He thinks Trump’s desire to put America first abroad, for example, is commendable.
“Anyone who is brave enough to stick up for America around the world, seemingly at least, you kind of have to give them a chance because they’re looking out for all of us,” Lamarr said.
Still, Lamarr said he takes issue with the divisiveness he has seen the Trump administration sow. Lamarr said he has been disappointed by rollbacks for supports, services and social acceptance for LGBTQ+ people across the country. As the grandson of a civil rights activist, Mary B. Henry, Lamarr said he is disturbed by the effort to strike contributions by African American people from the historical record through anti-DEI directives, referring specifically to the efforts to do so in museums.
— Beki San Martin
Dawson Short, 20, of Oak Park, identifies most with the Socialist Party and voted for Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris in November. Short said President Donald Trump is putting Americans through financial turmoil to enrich already-wealthy people, while poor folks suffer. “He’s got a pretty big ego on him,” Short said. “Probably everything will get more expensive.”
— Lily Altavena
Marquis Spearman, 26, of Pontiac, said he has no faith in the political process or elected officials and doesn’t see political participation as worth his time — or energy. Politicians, he said, are self-serving and “have their own personal agenda.” He said he sat out the most recent presidential election because neither major candidate, to him, seemed fit for office and he believes that the government system is “crumbling.”
— Frank Witsil
Larry Williams, 50, of Pontiac, said he views President Donald Trump as a populist and nationalist who is pushing isolationist policies. He added: “I think, in his heart, he means well. I think he’s moving the country in the wrong direction but I understand why he’s doing it.” Williams did not vote in the last presidential election, he said, because he disagreed with parts of both candidates’ positions.
— Frank Witsil
John Prepolec, a Royal Oak business owner who describes himself as politically moderate, described President Donald Trump’s first 100 days as “dynamic” and said he’d like to see the national budget balanced and consumer costs lowered. He also said he disapproves of Trump’s emphasis on transgender issues. “I think it’s just an overemphasized issue and I’d like to see it become less emphasized. I think it’s disproportionate,” he said.
— Duante Beddingfield
The savings and 401(k) of 72-year-old retiree Jim Clair, of Ortonville, took a severe hit as President Donald Trump’s tariffs shook the stock market. Within the first two weeks of April, Clair lost about $130,000, he said. Clair, who aligns with the Democratic Party, didn’t vote for Trump but rather then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who was running on the Democratic ticket.
“He should’ve never been brought back,” Clair said of Trump.
Clair called Trump’s first 100 days back in office a “disaster.” The president thinks he knows everything and doesn’t, Clair said. The president isn’t thinking long-term, he said.
Clair was supposed to be planning a trip to Scotland with his wife and in-laws but they’ll have to see now, he said. They rode things out when the markets took a hit back around 2008. There’s no choice but to ride it out again, he said.
— Darcie Moran
Emanuella Walter, 30, of Pontiac, works in customer service at a bookstore and supports President Donald Trump’s actions to get rid of the penny. “A stopped clock is right twice a day,” she said. Otherwise, she’s “scared and angry both at the current administration but also at Democrats who don’t seem to be able to do anything effective about the current administration. They’re not fighting back.” As a result, Walter, who is transgender, has been attending meetings of the Revolutionary Communists of America. “Unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, their primary interest is the basic needs of everyday people,” she said.
— Georgea Kovanis
Ana Alfaro, of Clawson, was laid off from her job as an executive legal assistant in December. She has been searching for work, but no one wants to hire right now thanks to uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s economic policies and tariffs, she said. “I had one guy tell me, ‘I can hire you, but I don’t know for how long,’ ” she said. “I don’t want a job like that.”
— Lily Altavena
Security is perhaps the main concern for Barbara Ritch, 75, of Holly. She has been concerned with the presence of immigrants who unlawfully enter the country and said everybody wants to feel safe where they live. Their removal will help with that, she said. So, she hopes President Donald Trump will continue his work from his first 100 days back in office, keep such immigrants from coming in and get the economy “back up,” she said.
She is a Republican but said she votes for whoever she believes is the most responsible candidate and has voted for Democrats in the past. “America is going downhill and … the Democrats, I think, gave so much away and everything was freebies and they didn’t really want to work to receive these. And I think that’s going to stop.”
She described Trump’s work in the first 100 days back in office as “very good.” “He’s doing what he said he would do,” she said. “His promises are being fulfilled.”
— Darcie Moran
Jason Pyzik, 51, of Ortonville, said his employer — the Japanese automaker Nissan — may be affected by President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But he still supports the tariffs, saying the goal is to level the playing field for Americans. “We’re at a starting point now and everyone’s panicking, skies on fire type of deal but … I try to be a positive person.”
His politics are largely based on fiscal interests and he was previously concerned with issues, including overspending. He voted for Trump three times. Now, he says the president is doing what he was elected to do.
Pyzik likes Trump’s border policy so far, too. U.S. citizens commit crimes but he’s concerned with how many unvetted immigrants have poured into the country and pointed to a Colorado apartment complex that got national attention amid debated reports of a gang takeover. The removal of immigrants with legal status in the country is “uncalled for” but he hopes that the number of mistakenly deported individuals is small, he said.
— Darcie Moran
Carol Kuhn, 84, of Oxford, didn’t appreciate having to breathe through a mask during COVID-19.
She was upset about coal miners losing jobs.
And she pointed to high gas prices and the cost to visit her children in Boyne City under the Biden administration.
“Every morning I get up, I thank God that President (Donald) Trump is our president and we don’t have to have what we had for four years,” she said.
She’s excited about Trump’s work to address Social Security rolls, his tariffs on China, and his action on immigration and deportations. Kuhn just wishes Congress would fully get behind Trump and his team, including tech billionaire Elon Musk. It will take time to see the results, she said.
“You give this man six months to a year, it’s going to be a different America.”
— Darcie Moran
“Any transition is confusing,” Gale Wilinski, 69, of Highland Township, an independent, told the Free Press about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. “I think it’s hopeful,” she said, “just to be part of it and see a new hope, new democracy.” People see things so differently, where they used to be united, said Wilinski, a retired hospital worker.
— Kristi Tanner
“Tariffs,” was the one word Nate Slating, 52, of Highland Township, who works in the automotive industry, used to describe the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term. “I have three meetings a day about it (tariffs), and it’s costing us probably $200 million.”
— Kristi Tanner
Greg Ball, 56, of Highland Township, who works for Stellantis, said he thinks President Donald Trump is doing “great.” “I think he’s doing the right thing as far as the tariffs and making other countries be more … accountable for what they’re importing to us,” Ball said. “Hopefully, it’ll help the economy turn around.”
— Kristi Tanner
Mary Beth Vines, 58, of Oxford, said she grew up in one of the country’s most Republican counties in Illinois and has always voted Republican. Vines, who served 16 months at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility for failure to pay child support, said being out of work, combined with health issues sent her to prison but she has a job after completing parole and is up-to-date on her payments. “I’m concerned about the economy,” said Vines, but willing to take some short-term pain if Trump’s tariffs return more manufacturing to the U.S. She said she likes the fact Trump is doing more to secure the Southern border and she also favors his efforts to rein in federal spending.
— Paul Egan
This series was reported by: Dana Afana, Lily Altavena, Sarah Atwood, Tresa Baldas, Duante Beddingfield, Dave Boucher, Lisa Vidaurri Bowling, Jackie Charniga, Natalie Davies, Paul Egan, Eric Guzmán, Christina Hall, Brad Heineman, Clara Hendrickson, Brendel Hightower, Johnathan Hogan, Violet Ikonomova, Cassidey Kavathas, Georgea Kovanis, Jamie L. LaReau, Eric D. Lawrence, Arpan Lobo, Keith Matheny, Sarah Moore, Darcie Moran, David Rodriguez Muñoz, Corey J. Murray, David Panian, Jenna Prestininzi, Nour Rahal, Nushrat Rahman, Liam Rappleye, Don Reid, JC Reindl, Adrienne Roberts, Andrea May Sahouri, Beki San Martin, Susan Selasky, Kristen Jordan Shamus, Scott Talley, Kristi Tanner, Connor Veenstra, Tess Ware, Niraj Warikoo, Jalen Williams, John Wisely, Suzanne Nolan Wisler and Frank Witsil.
In Michigan’s Oakland County, voters weigh in on Trump’s first 100 days in office – Detroit Free Press
