Politics and views in the United States.

Trump marks first 100 days of his second term. GOP leaders praise the administration's immigration agenda, and small businesses worry about the impacts of tariffs as 90-day pause ends.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

I think it has been a very historic 100 days.

And in my view, you could be described as promises made and promises kept.

If you look across the board, all the things the president campaigned on, said he was going to do, he was following through on those.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune is one of many elected officials celebrating the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's second term.

Thune says he's especially pleased by Trump's moves on immigration.

Most Americans have been keen on using mass deportations against migrants, but polls also show their attitudes are changing when seeing the policy in effect.

Mervyl Gutierrez is a 19-year-old New Yorker awaiting asylum.

His family says he's been wrongfully deported to an El Salvador Supermax prison.

Pastor Adovic with Documented says Gutierrez hasn't been allowed to communicate and federal officials have been little help, which has damaged his father's faith in the American dream.

We have contacted a lot of police stations and no one was able to give anything about where Mervyl was.

So that silence is what Wilmert resents the most, not just the arrest itself, but the feeling of being left in the dark.

Trump just signed an executive order targeting sanctuary cities.

It gives Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Homeland Security a month to identify the local governments not complying with federal immigration actions.

Noncompliance could result in losing federal funding.

Murata Waudah is with the New York Immigration Coalition.

This executive order is nothing more than an intimidation tactic designed to undermine the ability of local governments to enact the policies that they believe best safeguards their communities, while strong-arming localities into becoming complicit with Trump's attacks on immigrants.

Polls show Trump's approval rating for his first 100 days under 40 percent, the lowest since polling began.

And the narrow congressional majority party shows signs of fraying, with moderate Republicans opposing drastic cuts to Medicaid.

Budget hardliners have been backing an almost $900 billion cut from health care for the poor, elderly and disabled over 10 years, but other Republicans say they won't support cuts of more than about half that size.

For his part, the president insists they won't cut Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security, and congressional leaders say they will only trim fraud, waste and abuse.

Trump's dramatic and chaotic tariff policy is also sparking pushback.

More than 500 Pennsylvania craft brewers are signaling import taxes on things like aluminum cans are a serious issue for them.

Jeff Feigley owns Brew Works in Bethlehem and Allentown.

He says the small businesses, like his, which helped revitalize downtown Bethlehem after the steel industry's decline, will struggle.

I hope they can get through this because the consumer ultimately is going to pay because we'll have to offset it somewhere.

We can't absorb it all.

We'll have to raise prices.

And I think right now the restaurant industry as a whole is seeing kind of flat sales.

Though Trump's tariffs have been on pause, it's uncertain if they will be paused again.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, the president said he expects to make multiple deals but also said he won't call another 90-day pause.

While he and other administration officials have claimed to be in talks with China about a trade deal, China denies the negotiations are even happening.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.