What 3 Utah Republicans had to tell us about Trump’s 100 days

It’s been 100 days since President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term. In those first few months, the 47th president sought to follow through on some of his largest campaign promises on the economy, immigration and government spending.

According to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 42% of Americans approve of the president’s performance at the 100-day mark.

To get a sense of how some of his supporters feel in this moment, KUER and PBS Utah spoke with three Utah Republicans from different age groups and geographies around the state. Teri Bishop is middle-aged and lives in Utah County. Marjorie Haun-Storland is a baby boomer in rural San Juan County. Spencer Roberts is a young Ph.D. student in Salt Lake City.

While Trump’s overall approval rating is at a historic low, Bishop, Haun-Storland and Roberts are largely happy with the direction the administration has taken so far.

“I appreciate everything he's trying to do, as far as his campaign goals that he said he was going to,” said Bishop.

Haun-Storland said the president was doing what she voted for him to do, and Roberts felt pretty good about the first 100 days.

“I feel like Trump 1 had to walk so that Trump 2 could run,” Roberts said. “I think he knows what he wants this time. I think last time, he wasn't prepared for the sort of resistance that he experienced within the executive branch. And he kind of came in swinging this time, ready to take that out.”

While the three gave Trump high marks on immigration and the push to review government spending, Trump’s economic approach prompted more mixed reviews.

Tariffs and the direction the economy is headed give Roberts some pause. He thinks the administration’s trade policy is something that Trump could have communicated better.

“Tariff policies have been a little weird to say the least, but I'm pretty satisfied,” he said.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to impose tariffs on countries like China and lower taxes as part of a broader effort to create more American jobs and boost the domestic economy.

He made good on that promise shortly after taking office. On April 2, global markets spun into a panic after the announcement of sweeping tariffs on over 180 countries. Those tariffs have escalated into a trade war with China.

Roberts thinks the administration’s goal of bringing back more American manufacturing jobs is a good thing, but he also wants to see some relief for higher prices.

“If you actually, genuinely believe tariffs are a good thing, they need to be coupled with something else, because it's a tax, right?” he said. “So it would have to be a massive lowering of the income tax or something else. But that hasn't been coupled with it. So it's like, all right, well, you're just implementing a new tax on Americans.”

In Utah County, Bishop agrees. If tariffs are going up, the income tax needs to come down.

“Because then we're carrying the burden and we're not relying on tariffs to do the work,” she said. “So my point is, if a country is going to charge us tariffs, we need to match. And so I'm all for tariffs. Let's lower the income tax.”

Haun-Storland said farmers and ranchers in San Juan County could benefit from a tariff policy that favors domestic goods. For example, in 2022, Australia accounted for 75% of the sheep and goat meat imported into the U.S. Those imports, she said, “have really hurt our sheep farmers.”

“I believe having tariffs on those goods, not to the point of eliminating imports, but having a balance where there are more American exports, I think that's a very good thing.”

Economists, for their part, are largely skeptical of the positive impacts of Trump’s tariffs. The imposition of tariffs in the 1920s to protect domestic producers is seen by many historians and economists as making the Great Depression worse.

For sheep farmers in Utah, the trade war has impacted the Chinese market and decreased demand from that country for American wool.

Despite the uncertainty, Haun-Storland stands by the administration’s line of thinking that the current pain will be short-lived and will ultimately lead to bigger and better things in the coming years.

“I think we'll see a little volatility, but I think overall, the tariffs and the way he's handling the economy will bring manufacturing back to the United States and we’ll have more good-paying jobs,” she said.

For a young voter like Roberts, those gains need to be easier for people to understand. Right now, he’s not seeing that.

“The gain is ethereal, right now,” he said. “The cost is like, well, recession. I think we all get that, but the gain has not been described. And so if you're going to pitch that to people — and I want Trump to succeed, I want him. He's doing great things, he's changing the culture, he's changing the way the government works. So I want him to succeed, but if he tanks the economy, he's not going to succeed.”

For the most part, Bishop, Haun-Storland and Roberts are impressed with what Trump has been able to accomplish on immigration since he took office. They believe in his approach and all agree that those who commit crimes while living in the country without legal status should be deported.

“Those who have entered illegally, those who are engaged in criminal activity, those who have come from other countries who are engaged with cartels and gangs and very dangerous people, should not be here,” Haun-Storland said.

Bishop has a personal relationship with immigration. She grew up in San Diego, which borders Tijuana, Mexico. Her grandfather immigrated from Sweden, and her grandfather-in-law is originally from Italy. But in Bishop’s view, her family members came to America the right way.

“They had to have sponsors when they came to this country. They had to have jobs. They had to assimilate in learning the language,” she said.

She believes that Gov. Spencer Cox could be doing more to support Trump’s agenda. To her, the governor “has turned Utah into a sanctuary state,” which is considered a place that limits immigration enforcement and cooperation with immigration agents. Bishop cites the fact that Utah is one of 19 states that offer driving privileges for residents without legal status.

Cox has rejected the sanctuary state label in the past and told reporters during his April monthly news conference that the state communicates and collaborates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement regularly. He has also championed Trump’s plan to deport those with a criminal history or record.

But Bishop’s message is clear.

“I support legal immigration,” she said. “Come here the right way.”

Overall, Roberts is mostly impressed with the president’s action on the southern border.

“Honestly, I feel like his execution at the border has been phenomenal,” he said. “What has it been? A 94% decrease in crossings? That's great.”

Roberts is referring to a statement made to CBS by Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks. While Banks cited that crossings are down 94% compared to last February, other reports show crossings down between 60% to 70%. Either way, border crossings have dipped significantly since Trump took office.

And even though she hasn’t seen a lot of immigration enforcement in her neck of the woods in southern Utah, Haun-Storland stands by the president.

“I agree with what he is doing with the mass deportations,” she said. “The administration focusing first on criminals and drug cartels is great. Those people should not be in this country.”

She believes the people who are in the U.S. without legal status but who have no criminal history will be treated differently by the system. But Roberts believes it will be more complicated.

There have been cases of American citizens getting caught up in deportation proceedings. There have also been instances of people with legal or protected status being deported, including the high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. He was deported to El Salvador by mistake, and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return. They have yet to do so.

The Abrego-Garcia case is an example of a misstep for Roberts, as he believes everyone deserves due process.

“There's no reason to take the political loss, to act like you're just bypassing laws like you don't. You don't need to do that,” he said.

The administration’s efforts to downsize the federal government and cut spending through the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency earned universal agreement with the three Utah Trump voters.

For Haun-Storland, DOGE’s efforts to slim down the federal bureaucracy have been needed for a long time.

“American families have been outsourcing things that we should do,” she said. “And because of that, the government has grown and grown and grown to the point where we have lost some of our freedoms, and I think Americans are hungry to have some of those freedoms back and to have fewer regulations.”

Bishop called Musk’s efforts awesome.

“I don't think that the taxpayers should be fronting corporations,” said Bishop. “I don't think we should be bailing out businesses, and I think we need to look deep into our spending and abuses. Let's find the waste. Let's find the fraud.”

Musk originally claimed that DOGE could find $2 trillion in savings, but just how much money has been cut remains unclear, with some estimates putting savings closer to $150 billion.

For Roberts, it’s not so much the amount of money saved that excites him most, it’s about creating an accountability framework for agency administrators and getting a look behind the curtain on government spending.

“In the scheme of the total amounts, we're not going to solve the national debt with what DOGE is finding,” he said. “DOGE is peeling back the way government works. From, ‘Hey, this is too complicated. Don't worry your pretty little head about it,’ to, ‘Hey, you're an independent person, and you can look at this and you can decide whether this is a good use of your money.’”

DOGE took quick action in the first 100 days of the administration with mass firings — and sometimes re-hirings — throwing numerous federal agencies into chaos. Those actions have led to lawsuits challenging everything from the firings and layoffs to transparency issues.

Despite the turmoil, Roberts, Haun-Storland and Bishop want to see the work continue after Musk scales back his involvement and Trump eventually leaves office.

“If they do all this, they root out all this inefficiency, this waste, some fraud, and then they close up shop and pat themselves on the back, it's gonna grow back,” Roberts said. “The cancer is gonna come back.”

“I think every state needs its own DOGE to ensure that the monies that come from taxpayers are treated with respect and used in ways that benefit the people,” added Haun-Storland. “People should not be getting rich on the government.”

The next big test for the Trump administration will be the massive government budget bill that Republicans want to push through Congress. And then there will be the 2026 midterms, where Democrats will look to capitalize on the president’s flagging approval to claw back control of the House and Senate from Republican hands.

Editor’s note: This story was produced in partnership with PBS Utah.