Protesters across Michigan and the nation rally against Trump’s policies

Tens of thousands of protesters rallied in Michigan against what they see as acts of authoritarianism by President Donald Trump and his administration.

Last week, the president ordered National Guard troops into Los Angeles, California, against the wishes of the governor. He also deployed several hundred Marines. While the protests in L.A. have been largely peaceful, local police have repeatedly used tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators.

Protesters in Michigan were part of a nationwide outpouring of opposition to President Donald Trump. As reported by the Associated Press, “Masses of demonstrators packed into streets, parks and plazas across the United States on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump, marching through downtowns and small towns, blaring anti-authoritarian chants mixed with support for protecting democracy and immigrant rights.”

Detroit officials and residents speak out

At a rally Saturday at Clark Park in Southwest Detroit, Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said protests are effective.

“We did not get the Civil Rights Act because somebody in Congress woke up one day and said, ‘Geez, that’s a really good idea.'”

Tlaib said the city has a long history of fighting for civil rights.

“I mean, we’ve birthed movements. If there’s any city that’s going to end fascism, it’s Detroit.”

Detroiter Roger Paz was brought to the U.S. from Peru by his parents in the late 1960s. He said he’s baffled by the hate directed toward immigrants.

“I have always been proud of the immigrant tradition of this country. And to be anti-immigrant, I think it is like the most anti-American thing you can be.”

With a smile, Paz said targeting Latinos in the U.S. is pretty silly given this country’s history.

“I wish these Spanish speaking people would get out of our country, like, get out of California, Florida, Nevada, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Alamos, San Antonio, Las Vegas, Florida,” Paz said. “What are these Spanish speaking people doing in Sacramento?”

Calls for community solidarity

Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been conducting raids in Southwest Detroit. The area is home to a large immigrant community.

Detroit City Councilwoman Gabriela Santiago-Romero said now is the time to take care of the community.

“Get to know your neighbors, jot down their numbers, call to see how they’re doing. Do you have an undocumented family on your block with young children? Offer to take them to school. Do you have elders that are scared to pick up their medication and go to the doctors? Give them a ride. Find translation services. Be of help.”

Warren resident Leigh Benigni protested in Roseville. She criticized what she called Trump’s hypocrisy for supporting law and order while ignoring the courts.

“We also happen to have a queer daughter and the thought of someone wanting to jail her or prosecute her just for who she loves… it’s just mind-blowing,” Benigni said. “I just feel stirred within my being to fight for what I know is good about this country.”

Christian Pierce of Harsens Island said he hopes to change the minds of conservatives backing Trump.

“If that’s my countrymen, I don’t really identify with them. And you know when you’re old you’re looking at limited time,” Pierce said. “So if you believe in it, you’ve gotta try.”

Emphasis on mutual care and long-term activism

In the crowd in Ferndale, Tiffany Perkins of Royal Oak said now is the best time to take care of others.

“Look out for your neighbors, look out for your friends, look out for your family, and if we come together, we’ll be stronger,” Perkins said. “Don’t let fear keep you from doing the right thing and having empathy.”

Perkins also worries that unexpected, swift deportations will leave pets and other dependent animals behind without needed food and shelter.

In immigration court in Detroit last week, several immigrants seeking asylum had their cases dismissed and were arrested by ICE agents — fast-tracking them for forcible removal.

In Lansing, Michigan State medical student Elizabeth Shokoya protested in 2020 during Black Lives Matter demonstrations. But she said this moment feels different.

“This one feels more impending doom. Like it’s not only impacting people who are minorities. It’s impacting women. It’s impacting disabled people. It’s impacting everyone. And it feels like you need to be out here to say something because if you don’t say something, then they’re just going to take everything away from us and we’ll regret it,” Shokoya said.

Liz Kelley demonstrated in Elk Rapids, in northern Michigan’s Antrim County. She’s a substitute teacher and a single mother of three. Her family relies on food assistance and Medicaid. Kelley worries that Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” will continue to slash safety nets for low-income families.

“Great societies shouldn’t be judged by the top tier of their wealth but by how they care for their most vulnerable,” Kelley said. “So how are we seeking the needs of those who aren’t meeting them on their own? I think that’s a virtuous thing. And we shouldn’t have the stigma that we’ve failed — but that we’re looking out for each other.”

Also at the rally in Lansing, organizer Megan Ropeta said more major rallies will come if President Trump doesn’t change his policies.

“This is not a sprint. This is a long game so we’re in it, we’re buckling in and we’re going to be planning stuff like this for as long as it takes,” Ropeta said.

In a statement shared with the Associated Press, the No Kings Coalition said, “Today, across red states and blue, rural towns and major cities, Americans stood in peaceful unity and made it clear: we don’t do kings.”

Demonstrations widespread and largely peaceful

Large protests also took place in Grand Rapids, Petoskey, Marquette, Troy and Wyandotte.

John DeSpelder leads Traverse Indivisible, the left-leaning civics group that organized the No Kings protest in Traverse City. He says thousands attended, making it the group’s largest demonstration to date.

“I think a lot of people are watching the news and feeling real anguish,” DeSpelder said. “Especially in more conservative areas, folks sometimes feel like they’re the only ones who think this way. But when people show up in large numbers, it opens the door to conversation and reminds them they’re not alone.”

The demonstrations were peaceful. In Clark Park, members of the notorious Highwaymen Motorcycle Club showed up to instigate fights with protesters. There was a brief scuffle, but Detroit Police quickly broke it up.

AP journalists also reported, “Confrontations were isolated. But police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted a week earlier and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the formal event ended.”

Associated Press material contributed to this report.

Photos from around Metro Detroit

Unhappy with the Trump Administration’s arrests of undocumented immigrants, about 50 protesters demonstrated near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Detroit on Sunday.

Mass arrests and deportations, including some that continue to violate court orders, have sent many to the streets in protest.

Over the weekend, law enforcement in Los Angeles, CA attacked protesters and journalists with tear gas and projectiles injuring dozens.

The crowd was small but vocal, chanting “Summer’s here, melt the ICE, immigrants deserve their rights,” along with chants in Spanish that included expletives aimed at ICE.

Mike Barber, a special education teacher from White Lake, was among them. He says he’s troubled by the administration’s actions.

“This is against what America stands for,” Barber says. “America is a nation of immigrants and now they want to kick them out without even looking at their papers.”

“It could be us next if we’re disliked.”

“I mean, here at Wayne State, we had people that got their F1 visas canceled,” Pico says. “These aren’t criminals, and the fact that Trump wants to portray them like that, I mean, he’s just racist.”

Jo Pico was drawn to protest after seeing the police-initiated violence in LA.

Leah Checchini of Hazel Park says her father immigrated from Argentina and that she believes everyone should have the same opportunity that he did.

“I have a lot of friends that are in the process of getting their papers taken care of and everything,” Checchini says. “So just seeing what’s happening to people is enraging, to say the least.”

Nationwide protests are planned for Saturday. It coincides with a planned show of military might by President Trump.

The President is celebrating his birthday with a military parade in Washington D.C.

At the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island last week, Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist announced new incentive programs aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and retaining talent in the state. 

“I think this is all about making it easier for people to say yes to living in the state of Michigan, yes to growing in the state of Michigan, yes to succeeding in the state of Michigan,” Gilchrist told WDET. “That’s what I want to do.”

The Make MI Home funding includes $210,000 for housing for new grads looking to start businesses in Detroit; $100,000 for attracting and retaining college students in Flint; and nearly $60,000 for housing and childcare programs in the Traverse City area, among other programs. The grants will also help support building out broadband internet, and making solar energy more accessible to people in Michigan’s urban areas.

“People need to see a future for themselves everywhere — a community they can afford, a home that they can afford, and we have worked to do that and build solutions for that all across the state of Michigan,” Gilchrist said. “But I know that one of the anxieties that parents have all across Michigan, whether you are on the eastern Peninsula or the east side of Detroit where I’m from, parents are worried about their kids growing up, leaving and never coming home.”

Gilchrist says the bottom line of these programs is to ensure Michigan remains competitive.

“We want them to say yes in Michigan, so we can build the things that matter. And so that means one: they have to be confident that our workforce is prepared. They have to be confident that our infrastructure is solid,” he said. “That’s why we’ve made these historic investments.”

Gilchrist has taken a larger role in announcing statewide programs more recently — likely tied to his run for governor.

He is seeking the Democratic nomination in the race along with Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. On the Republican side, State Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt and Michigan Congressman John James have also announced their candidacies for governor, while Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will be running as an independent. 

—WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

The checkered flag has flown over this year’s Detroit Grand Prix.

IndyCar driver Kyle Kirkwood took the win in the final race of the weekend on the downtown street track, and hometown Team Penske is moving forward, away from controversy that erupted the weekend before at the Indianapolis 500.

Roger Penske owns both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the IndyCar series itself, so his team faced extra criticism when two Penske cars were penalized at Indy for using an illegal part.

But Penske says there are many positives he’s taking away from the famed 500.

The following interviews have been edited for clarity and length.

Roger Penske: We had a great race at Indy, first class winner (driver Alex Palou), great team. We personally were disappointed, as (Penske driver) Josef Newgarden was right where he wanted to be and we had a fuel pump situation. But putting all that aside, I think the most important thing is the fans that we had. We had at least 30,000 more people in ’25 than we did in ’24. I would say the number of real people on the ground was 330,000-plus. And just to see the excitement and the momentum and the kids and the demographics, they just can’t beat it. I think we set a record with over 7 million watching the race, up to almost 8.5 or 9 million at the peak. So I would say we get a 10-plus there.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: Obviously there was the controversy over the penalties that happened from the tech inspections at Indy. You’ve had so much respect at the speedway and now you were getting criticized. Looking back at it, what’s your view everything that happened?

RP: Well, I’m not hiding. We had an incident there which, quite honestly, I felt was unfortunate. We had run the same parts and the same pieces for a year and a half. So to me, to have it thrown out on qualification day was disappointing, because it’s a tight game here in terms of the competition. But look, I’ve got to respect the officials and they’re holding other people to the same level. And we moved on.

QK: There were some critics saying, “It’s different because it’s Penske’s cars and he owns the series, he owns the track.” What’s your response to those kind of comments?

RP: Well look, everybody has their own opinion. We’ve been racing for five decades and people know who we are. This isn’t the first time a car didn’t pass inspection. But we’re not denying anything. We moved on. And whatever people want to say about me or about our team, it’s unfortunate, but we’re going to continue on the way we are.

QK: Are you thinking about bringing in some outside officials for tech inspection and Race Control, that kind of thing?

RP: I’m not ready to announce anything. That’s going to be up to (IndyCar President) Doug Boles from the standpoint of exactly what we do. I think each year we get better. This is a time for us to reassess all aspects of the sport, the competition, the tracks, specifications, all of it. It’s not just the officials separately. I think there’s a lot we can do to make it better, and that’s our focus.

QK: Now you’re here, back home in Detroit, with the track downtown. What’s your view of how it’s been working here compared to Belle Isle?

RP: It’s been amazing down here. The fact that General Motors and the city of Detroit allow us to use their backyard for this race is amazing. And I think when you look at what’s been able to be done here, people that worked with us to help Detroit host the Super Bowl are the ones helping us here. So, I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s terrific.

The excitement over the downtown scene in Detroit is shared by six-time IndyCar driving champion Scott Dixon. He won the Detroit race in 2024 and finished 11th this year.

But Dixon says he also shares the concerns over officiating revealed at the Indy 500.

Scott Dixon: It’s kind of a tough one. I think it’s great to see maybe a turning of the page for enforcement on a lot of stuff. I think it will set a precedent moving forward, which will maybe deter some situations. You never want to see it, for sure. You don’t want to see anybody have opportunities taken away from them from something that’s totally out of their control. For the drivers, we kind of just drive the cars. Some of the things on the car you don’t even know too much about. So, I think it’s good for the sport.

Quinn Klinefelter: They had problems in the tech inspections during qualifying and then penalized some cars after the race as well. There had been some concerns raised that IndyCar should perhaps bring in outside officials for at least Race Control and tech. Do you think that’s an idea that should be pursued?

SD: Yeah, I think for a series that’s so big, the technical department doesn’t have a whole lot of resources. Like a lot of sports, even in Formula One, it’s kind of self-controlled by other teams, what they see. And I think that’s what we’ve seen play out, I think that’s what’s really happened in the past. The difficult part for the series right now is that with Penske, they own the series, they run a three-car team and they’re also the engine supplier for one of the manufacturers. They own the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. You hope there’s not any conflicts, but at least that can be the perception of it. I think for them to try and distance as much as they can would be good, not just for themselves, but also for the sport.

QK: When Roger first bought the Speedway and the series, people said if there’s anyone that we can trust to do both, run a team and the series, it would be him. Is there some trust that’s been broken among other teams at this point?

SD: I don’t think so. I think Roger is a is an extremely stand-up person. Look at what he’s done in his whole career and what he’s done for our sport. I think Roger, as far as owning the Speedway and the series, came at a very fitting time. And they’re very good at what they’re doing. We’ve seen that with the deals that they’ve done, whether it’s with Fox to broadcast it or the rejuvenation of the Speedway, all of these things are extremely important for IndyCar racing as such. But there’s always going to be people that kind of nitpick and try to peel back the layers on things that maybe necessarily aren’t there. I think what they’ve done is huge.

QK: Now you’re here in Detroit. What’s your view of how it’s working here on the downtown streets compared to Belle Isle a few years past?

SD: It’s always a tough one here. I think the track layout, especially in practice, is quite tough to even get two or three consecutive laps at speed. It funnels a lot from turn four to turn five before everybody preps out of seven. There’s some very inviting moments on the course too, like the hairpin after a very long straight. It creates some chaos. And I don’t think that’s necessarily bad. It’s just a different place and a different style of racing. I think at the forefront, if you can stay out of trouble, you’re probably going to have a pretty good day here. And strategy-wise, it’s always interesting. The atmosphere downtown is very cool. It’s definitely very different from what we had at Belle Isle. As far as the circuit, Belle Isle was a lot of fun, just because it was quite technical, it had a good flow to it. It raced really well. But it’s a different mood and generation, I think, for a downtown street race and I think it’s cool. It’s going to build on it.

QK: Street tracks are often very narrow. Some people feared drivers might be really squished together at the downtown Detroit track, with very limited passing opportunities. Are you finding that, or were those concerns overblown?

SD: The racing situation the last couple of years has been pretty wild. And I think that’s good for the series. It’s not just your typical “follow the leader.” This year we’ve had three races in a row that went from green to checker with no cautions, which is kind of unheard of for our sport. So I think it’s always challenging but it’s the same for everybody. You got to make the most of the event. It’s in the early stages of it. Could there be some changes down the road, where they maybe extend the circuit a little bit or open up different kind of pathways and widen some of the parts of it? For sure. But that will be the evolution of the downtown Detroit street race.

New U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is downplaying the effect of tariffs on the auto industry.

The former Congressman and ex-chair of the Michigan GOP was confirmed to the ambassadorship in early April. 

In an interview with WDET during the 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference, Hoekstra said the economy is strong, and that worries about tariffs and a trade war with Canada are overblown.

“They’re not going to have a dramatic impact, OK?” Hoekstra said. “They will have an impact, but it’s not fundamentally going to change this relationship.”

Hoekstra said he thinks there will be a full re-working of the trade agreement between the U.S. and Canada within the next couple years.

He also dismissed concerns about President Donald Trump’s desire to make Canada the 51st state, calling the threat a “sign of affection” — something that has been outright rejected by Canadian leadership and its populace.

“Why they’re offended by such a generous offer, I’m not sure, but they are,” he said. “We have to deal with it, and we will.”

Car trips from Canada into the U.S. have dropped by nearly a third since Trump started the 51st state rhetoric. According to a recent poll from the Association for Canada Studies & Metropolis Institute, a majority of Canadians said it’s no longer safe for them to travel in the U.S.

Still, Michigan is consistently a top destination for Canadians for business and leisure travel, and with the newly constructed Gordie Howe International Bridge set to open by the end of the year, Hoekstra says he expects the relationship between the two countries to improve.

“Canada is our second largest trading partner, 70-80% of what they export comes south. That’s not going to go away,” he said. “If anything, we’ve got a president that is energizing the American economy. We have a prime minister in Canada that wants to try to do the same thing in Canada. And when they’re both successful, we’re going to have an energized North America.”

–WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the White House are looking at pardoning the two men convicted in the 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the men convicted in the kidnapping plot were victims of “a railroad job.”

Whitmer shared her reaction to the news with WDET’s Russ McNamara at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday, saying she’s not happy that the justice department — and the president — are even considering pardons.

“When the man took a shot at Donald Trump when he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first office holders on either side of the aisle to condemn it,” Whitmer said. “Anything short of condemning political violence does a disservice to every American.”

Whitmer has been a frequent visitor to the White House this year, asking for federal aid for this spring’s ice storms and helping to secure a new fighter mission at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

She said she would be “incredibly disappointed” to see the administration take that action, and that she “certainly will be conveying that to the White House.”

The two men seeking pardons — Barry Croft Jr., 49, and Adam Fox, 42 — were convicted in 2022 of conspiracy for their roles in the alleged kidnapping plot, and are serving a 20-year and 16-year prison sentence, respectively.

On securing a semiconductor ‘fab’ in Michigan

Whitmer also spoke about her stated goal of landing a massive microchip factory for Michigan before the end of her term at the start of 2027. She shared that while federal support would be needed to get the project “over the finish line,” she remains optimistic about getting it done before she leaves office.

“With so many pressures right now in our economy around tariffs and all the chaos, diversifying our economy and landing a chip fab — a plant — it’s so important to all the things that we as Americans rely on and want to do in the future, and this is something that I think would be a huge win for Michigan.”

–WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

The Black Church – and their leaders – are woven deep into Detroit politics. Pastors were instrumental in unifying congregations and public support during the civil rights movement.

Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) are among those who have made the jump from the pulpit to Congress. So political aspirations for spiritual leaders is not uncommon.

In Detroit, the city is looking for a new mayor. There are a dozen people in the running. Among those vying for the job is Reverend Solomon Kinloch Jr. of Triumph Church – which boasts 40-thousand members across Detroit, Flint and Southfield.

1:1 with Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. 

In an interview with Detroit Public Radio’s Russ McNamara, Kinloch lays out what he thinks the city needs out of its next mayor.

Rev. Solomon Kinloch: We are at a point right now where we don’t just need an executive and an administrator. We need a unifier, but more importantly, we need a builder. And that’s what I’ve been doing for 27 years as a community leader.

Russ McNamara: Do you see the job of mayor as similar to your current job?

SK: Dr Frederick Sampson, who was a pastor of another generation right here in the city of Detroit, used to say that the church’s address is a compilation of multiple addresses. And so it’s not that people are beaming out of another place to come to this place. They comprise and they populate this place. So it gives me a unique capacity every weekend and every day during the week, when we meet to hear the intimate concerns of people. And one of the concerns Russ that people have, they have a distrust of institutional politicians. They want government to just work good. And we got to get back to making sure that government is working good for the people it’s supposed to work good for

RM: So, what is the best way to kind of build these coalitions and build Detroit up?

SK: I believe we got tremendous stakeholders and resources, but also relationships in the city of Detroit, I believe, bringing together our residents, bringing together our Black presidents, bringing together our union leaders, bringing together for lot philanthropical leaders, bringing together also our corporate leaders, coming together (with) activists and advocates, coming together in a round table, and not having people Lord their will or their agenda on us, but convening a table where people can collectively be a part of their own destiny and their design.

RM: Attendance has been dropping fairly steadily over the past several decades, especially among younger folks. Politicians, of which you now are, dream of courting the younger vote. What have you done in your own congregation about reaching out to youth?

“Church is not just interested in worshiping on the weekend, but doing the work for the betterment of people every day during the week.”
– Rev. Solomon Kinlock

SK: People want to be a part of something that’s doing something because you can do good. And so one of the things that we have sought to do is partner, not just our worship on the weekend, but also giving people an opportunity where they can participate in the building of their community. The fabric of my whole life is woven together by that thread of commonality. I came from the New Bethel Baptist Church where my pastor was the Reverend Robert Smith, Jr, who currently serves there. Aretha Franklin’s father, C.L. Franklin was his predecessor, and all we know how to do is not to use the pulpit as a pedestal to promote a person, but we were taught that the pulpit is a platform to lift an entire community of people. And I believe that when people see that, particularly young people, see that. Church is not just interested in worshiping on the weekend, but doing the work for the betterment of people every day during the week. They want to be a part of that.

RM: You don’t have any plans to step down from your current position.

SK: I will, as mayor, continue to preach on the weekend, but the day to day operations are already being managed by a tremendous executive team.

RM: Your announcement was well attended at the Fox Theater. How do you plan to walk that tightrope so your congregation is uplifting the Lord and not the person who happens to be running for mayor?

SK: Triumph church is 105 years of age. They understand that is bigger than me, is bigger than all of us. We have a responsibility in our present age in order to live in a way where we leave a better world when we leave it than the way we walked into it. And the church was there long before I showed up. It was more than 70 years long before I showed up. We want to make sure with this moment that it is there long after we’re gone.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has abruptly dropped all charges against seven pro-Palestinian protesters arrested during an on-campus demonstration last year.

The felony charges alleged that the protesters were obstructing and resisting arrest as police were breaking up a pro-Palestinian encampment on the University of Michigan Diag. 

Nessel was reportedly asked by members of the University of Michigan Board of Regents to investigate the protesters after local prosecutors decided not to press charges.

Civil rights attorney Amir Makled says it never made sense for the AG to get involved in the first place. Citing concerns of potential bias, Makled asked the judge in the case to urge the state end the prosecution.

“It is a little surprising that on the eve of a motion to disqualify the attorney general’s office that the defense filed, the AG decides to just drop the case entirely,” he said.

In a statement, Nessel denied allegations of bias and criticized the pace of the judge handling the case – calling the matter a “circus-like atmosphere.”

Nevertheless, Makled says dismissing the case was the right move.

“We hope this sends a clear message to institutions across the state and the nation that protest is not a crime and dissent is not disorder,” he said.

Nessel — who is Jewish — says her involvement in the case was not evidence of bias and called the accusation “baseless and absurd.”