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This week marked President Trump's first 100 days in office. And according to an NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll released earlier this week, voters have not liked his performance. Forty-five percent of Americans polled gave Trump a failing grade. Less than a quarter gave him an A. But we wanted to hear from voters who were among the nearly half of the electorate who did vote for Trump and ask what they've liked or disliked. So our member station reporters reached out to voters in a few different states. Jason Rosenbaum from St. Louis Public Radio kicks us off.
JASON ROSENBAUM, BYLINE: Trump swept the red state of Missouri in 2024, getting over 58% of the vote. And much of that is thanks to Trump's dominating margins in rural Missouri, where voters like Bryant Kagay supported the GOP chief executive.
BRYANT KAGAY: I don't consider myself a Republican or a Democrat. I can be honest and say, I wasn't real thrilled with either choice, but I did vote for Donald Trump.
KAGAY: Kagay says he ended up voting for Trump because, among other things, he's uncomfortable with Democrats on social, fiscal and environmental issues. But he hasn't been a fan of his first 100 days, largely because of Trump's tariffs. Kagay is a fourth-generation farmer and part owner of a farm that produces beef, corn, soybeans and wheat. He says he's not sure exactly where his products get shipped to because he sells to a third-party processor in the U.S. who then sells to others. And while Trump's tariffs haven't directly affected his livelihood yet, Kagay expects eventually they'll raise the price of fertilizer, equipment and chemicals.
KAGAY: Just a government interference into the markets that affect our lives every day.
ROSENBAUM: Kagay says he does have some hope that the backlash over the tariffs could push Republicans to once again embrace free-market principles.
KAGAY: You don't want me growing your carrots or your avocados because I'm not in the right spot, I don't know how to do it, I don't have any markets for it. Let somebody else grow the avocados. Let somebody else, you know, manufacture steel. Let somebody else manufacture microchips. Let us do what we do best and let us have open markets that help facilitate me selling the product that I'm best at producing.
ROSENBAUM: While it may take a lot for rural Missouri to cool on Trump, Kagay says free-market principles could make a comeback if his policies start affecting people's bottom lines. For NPR News, I'm Jason Rosenbaum in St. Louis.
BENTE BIRKELAND, BYLINE: And I'm Bente Birkeland with Colorado Public Radio in Denver. Colorado is a solidly blue state. Democrats control the state government, and Trump lost Colorado in the last three presidential elections, in 2024 by 11 points. But Trump voters like Susan Virginia are happy with all the changes in the first 100 days. She's retired, is registered unaffiliated and lives in Morrison in the foothills west of Denver.
SUSAN VIRGINIA: I'm glad that he's moving quickly to do things 'cause his first administration, he didn't know who he could trust and who he couldn't trust.
BIRKELAND: She's especially pleased with the informal Department of Government Efficiency and its slashing approach to the federal government.
S VIRGINIA: If you were going to be bankrupt, you would do everything you could to cut the budget. We got to cut the budget. We got to stop paying for things that shouldn't be paid for.
BIRKELAND: So far, DOGE has fallen far short of its goal to cut a trillion dollars from the budget. Virginia is more mixed on Trump's approach to tariffs. She's in favor of them but thinks they'd get more support if Trump put money in people's pockets by lowering taxes.
S VIRGINIA: And I feel like that should happen now, but my understanding is it's not a hundred percent in his control to do that. It's got to go through Congress.
BIRKELAND: Susan's husband, Frank Virginia, is a registered Republican who also voted for Trump. Before he retired, he owned a small business.
FRANK VIRGINIA: I'm also OK with the tariffs, but I do have some concerns with the disruption to the markets currently.
BIRKELAND: The general agreement among economists is that tariffs will increase prices for consumers. Frank Virginia says he's most worried about his investments. As a retired couple, their ability to live largely ebbs and flows with the success of the stock market.
F VIRGINIA: But at this point in the process, I'm still comfortable in supporting the president and his policies, hoping that over the next four, five months, things will even out.
BIRKELAND: His wife, Susan, says she's anxious to see what will happen down the road. She hopes it keeps going in a positive direction. For NPR News, I'm Bente Birkeland in Denver.
MAAYAN SILVER, BYLINE: And I'm Maayan Silver with WUWM in Milwaukee. In November, Trump eked out a win in the swing state of Wisconsin by less than a percentage point. It's a place where every vote matters, including in the state's largest county and urban core, Milwaukee. That's where 48-year-old Rebecca Smith lives. She voted for Trump in all three elections and likes almost everything he's done this term. She's a kindergarten teacher in a dual Spanish language program at Milwaukee Public Schools. She says she voted for Trump in 2024 because she wanted more secure borders.
REBECCA SMITH: Once these people enter in illegally, then what else are they doing? Where are they going to?
SILVER: Smith's husband is an immigrant from Costa Rica. He's now a U.S. citizen. She says he had to wait to come here lawfully and went through a vetting process, answering questions like if he had ever committed a crime or was arrested.
SMITH: Look at the documents that we put people through to become a citizen in this country. Look at what they're expected to prove that they have not done, that they do not have a background like this and that that's negative.
SILVER: Like Smith, 87% of Republicans approve of how the president is handling immigration, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist Poll. That compares to a 44% approval among voters overall. He's overhauled U.S. immigration policy through executive orders, lawsuits and an aggressive series of raids, detentions and deportations. Smith says she realizes those detentions and deportations upend people's lives.
SMITH: You could say it seems really cruel, but at the same time, wasn't it really cruel when we had an open border and just let all these people in?
SILVER: She thinks there needs to be legislative action to make the legal process for immigration more efficient so that people might have real hopes of being here lawfully. Smith also mostly approves of Trump's economic policy and applauds Elon Musk's DOGE effort to slice federal spending. But as a public school teacher, she's worried about programs like Head Start, which has seen funding disruptions under Trump. The program helps low-income kids learn to read and prepare for kindergarten.
SMITH: Kids need to have better outcomes in school if we're thinking that they're going to become our population of good citizens and of workers.
SILVER: It's possible the White House may try to eliminate funding for the program altogether, but she's hoping they won't. And she has faith in the overall mission of Trump's presidency.
For NPR News, I'm Maayan Silver in Milwaukee. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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