April 25 - May 1, 2025
Rio de Janeiro’s LGBTQ+ community modeled creations inspired by Lady Gaga’s style before Gaga’s concert. San Lorenzo soccer fans in Buenos Aires held a huge banner of the late Pope Francis in the stands, commemorating the Argentine pontiff who was a supporter of the club. Displaced Haitians took shelter after fleeing gang violence in Port-au-Prince.
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Mexican singer Vivir Quintana, center, and band members join hands before the introduction of her new album "Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia" or Things that Surprise the Audience, in Mexico City, Thursday, April 24, 2025. Quintana's first "corridos" album tells the stories of women who were incarcerated for killing their abusers while defending themselves. (AP Photo/Aurea Del Rosario)
Gerson of Brazil's Flamengo jumps for a ball challenged by Carlos Gruezo of Ecuador's Liga Deportiva Universitaria, center right, during a Copa Libertadores Group C soccer match at Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
A mourner holds a giant puppet depicting the late Pope Francis during a caravan through emblematic places of his life in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 26, 2025, on the day of his funeral in Rome. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A woman rests at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A protester holds a flare during an International Workers' Day march marking May Day in Santiago, Chile, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Fidel Guajardo, a horseback rider known as a huaso, preps with his daughter Soledad for the Quasimodo Feast, a procession held on the first Sunday after Easter, in Colina, Chile, April 27, 2025, on which the huasos accompany priests to give communion to the sick. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Tires burn outside the "Cerro Negro" ceramics factory after company lay offs in Olavarria, Argentina, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A member of the LGBTI community models a creation inspired by Lady Gaga's style, some made by the models themselves and others created by the sustainable fashion house "Escola de Divines," at the Central Train Station days before Lady Gaga's concert in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
A San Lorenzo banner featuring the late Pope Francis is displayed in the stands, commemorating Francis who was a lifelong supporter of the club, during a local soccer match against Rosario Central in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
People watch the arrival of Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtemoc to Havana Bay, Cuba, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A woman protests the Panamanian government's decision to sign an agreement with the United States that demonstrators deem at odds with their sovereignty, in Panama City, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The selection was curated by AP photo editor Leslie Mazoch, based in Mexico City.
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Mexican singer Vivir Quintana, center, and band members join hands before the introduction of her new album "Cosas que Sorprenden a la Audiencia" or Things that Surprise the Audience, in Mexico City, Thursday, April 24, 2025. Quintana's first "corridos" album tells the stories of women who were incarcerated for killing their abusers while defending themselves. (AP Photo/Aurea Del Rosario)
Gerson of Brazil's Flamengo jumps for a ball challenged by Carlos Gruezo of Ecuador's Liga Deportiva Universitaria, center right, during a Copa Libertadores Group C soccer match at Rodrigo Paz Delgado stadium in Quito, Ecuador, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
A mourner holds a giant puppet depicting the late Pope Francis during a caravan through emblematic places of his life in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 26, 2025, on the day of his funeral in Rome. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
A woman rests at a shelter for families displaced by gang violence in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Saturday, April 26, 2025.(AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
A protester holds a flare during an International Workers' Day march marking May Day in Santiago, Chile, Thursday, May 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Fidel Guajardo, a horseback rider known as a huaso, preps with his daughter Soledad for the Quasimodo Feast, a procession held on the first Sunday after Easter, in Colina, Chile, April 27, 2025, on which the huasos accompany priests to give communion to the sick. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Tires burn outside the "Cerro Negro" ceramics factory after company lay offs in Olavarria, Argentina, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
A member of the LGBTI community models a creation inspired by Lady Gaga's style, some made by the models themselves and others created by the sustainable fashion house "Escola de Divines," at the Central Train Station days before Lady Gaga's concert in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
A San Lorenzo banner featuring the late Pope Francis is displayed in the stands, commemorating Francis who was a lifelong supporter of the club, during a local soccer match against Rosario Central in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, April 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
People watch the arrival of Mexican Navy tall ship Cuauhtemoc to Havana Bay, Cuba, Monday, April 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A woman protests the Panamanian government's decision to sign an agreement with the United States that demonstrators deem at odds with their sovereignty, in Panama City, Tuesday, April 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump toured an assembly line making Ford F-150 pickups on Tuesday, part of a Michigan trip meant to promote his efforts to boost U.S. manufacturing and counter fears about a weakening job market and still-rising prices hurting Americans' pocketbooks.
Trump visited a factory floor at the River Rouge plant in Dearborn, where he viewed F-150s — the bestselling domestic vehicle in the U.S. — at various stages of production. He caught a first-hand look at how gas and hybrid models were built, as well as the all-gas Raptor model, designed for off-road use.
The president chatted with assembly line workers clad in reflective vests — some of whom applauded his arrival — and spoke with the automaker's executive chairman, Bill Ford.
“All U.S. automakers are doing great,” Trump said, later adding that the “quality is unbelievable.”
Later, he headed to MotorCity Casino for a speech to members of the Detroit Economic Club, proclaiming “this is the easiest speech to make” because all he was doing is “spewing off what the hell we’ve done.”
“Right now I'm feeling pretty good,” Trump said.
But recent history suggests voters aren't so impressed. Tuesday's visit — his third trip to a swing state since last month to talk about his economic policies — follows a poor showing for Republicans in November’s off-year elections in Virginia, New Jersey and elsewhere amid persistent concerns about kitchen table issues.
The White House pledged afterward that Trump would hit the road more frequently to talk directly to the public about what he is doing to ease their financial fears.
The president has previously suggested that jitters about affordability are a “hoax” unnecessarily stirred by Democrats. Still, though he’s imposed steep tariffs on U.S. trading partners around the world, Trump has reduced some of them when it comes to making cars — including extending import levies on foreign-made auto parts until 2030.
He made a point on the factory floor of mentioning that his administration has imposed large tariffs on vehicles imported from China and said he hopes to prevail at the Supreme Court, which is weighing the legality of his sweeping tariff policies.
Trump also suggested that a major North American trade agreement he negotiated during his first term, the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, was irrelevant and no longer necessary for the United States. The pact, known as the USMCA, is up for review this year.
Some good news for Trump arrived before he left Washington, when new data from December showed inflation declined a bit last month as prices for gas and used cars fell — a sign that cost pressures are slowly easing. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in December from the prior month, the Labor Department said, the same as in November.
“We have very low inflation,” Trump told reporters on the White House lawn before heading to Michigan, adding that “growth is going up. We have tremendous growth numbers.”
Meanwhile, Americans around the country remain concerned about inflation and the increasing cost of daily living.
Trump's attempt to shift the nation's attention to his efforts to spur the economy comes as his Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, a move that Powell says is a blatant endeavor to undermine the central bank's independence in setting interest rates. Critics of the move include former Fed chairs, economic officials and even some Republican lawmakers.
Asked on the White House lawn about the Powell investigation, the president lobbed his often-repeated criticisms of the Fed chair but didn't comment on the case.
Ford announced in December that it was scrapping plans to make an electric F-150, despite pouring billions of dollars into broader electrification, after the Trump administration slashed targets to have half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030, eliminated EV tax credits and proposed weakening the emissions and gas mileage rules.
The Michigan stop follows economy-focused speeches Trump gave last month in Pennsylvania — where his gripes about immigrants arriving to the U.S. from “filthy” countries got more attention than his pledges to fight inflation — and North Carolina, where he insisted his tariffs have spurred the economy, despite residents noting the squeeze of higher prices.
Like in Michigan, Trump also used a casino as a backdrop to talk about the economy in Pennsylvania. His speech there was held at Mount Airy Casino Resort in Mount Pocono.
Trump carried Michigan in 2016 and 2024, after it swung Democratic and backed Joe Biden in 2020. He marked his first 100 days in office with a rally-style April speech outside Detroit, where he focused more on past campaign grudges than his administration's economic or policy plans.
During that visit nearly nine months ago, Trump also spoke at Selfridge Air National Guard Base and announced a new fighter jet mission, allaying fears that the base could close. It represented a win for Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — and the two even shared a hug.
This time, Democrats have panned the president's trip, singling out national Republicans' opposition to extending health care subsidies and recalling a moment in October 2024 when Trump, then also addressing the Detroit Economic Club, said that Democrats' retaining the White House would mean “our whole country will end up being like Detroit."
"You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” Trump said during a campaign stop back then.
Curtis Hertel, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party, said that “after spending months claiming that affordability was a ‘hoax’ and creating a health care crisis for Michiganders, Donald Trump is now coming to Detroit — a city he hates — to tout his billionaire-first agenda while working families suffer."
“Michiganders are feeling the effects of Trump’s economy every day,” Hertel said in a statement.
Weissert reported from Washington.
Marine One, with President Donald Trump aboard, flies past the Jefferson Memorial, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2006, in Washington, after departing the White House, enroute to Joint Base Andrews and onto Detroit. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Donald Trump speaks during a tour of the Ford River Rogue complex, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One for a trip to Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks to, from left Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, and Corey Williams, Ford River Rouge Plant Manager, during a tour of the Ford River Rogue complex, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - President Donald Trump shakes hands with Federal Reserve board member Jerome Powell after announcing him as his nominee for the next chair of the Federal Reserve, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Nov. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
President Donald Trump points as he boards Air Force One for a trip to Detroit, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, reflected on door, leave to board Marine One, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One to Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
