Former Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer of Johnson County on Wednesday headlined an event arranged by the Kansas First political action committee marking President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office since being re-inaugurated in January.
About 150 people gathered at Colyer’s Prairiefire office in Overland Park to celebrate what they called Trump’s “promises made and promises kept.”
“This is the fastest start of any modern president,” said Colyer, a southern Johnson County surgeon who served as governor for a year in 2018, after Gov. Sam Brownback took a job in the first Trump administration. “The president has made tremendous strides on immigration, on the economy, trying to fix taxes, fixing schools. He’s done a whole lot.”
The first 100 days of President Trump’s second term have seen a whirlwind of major activity, upsetting long-held norms and challenging legal precedents and constitutional provisions. He has focused most publicly on issues like immigration, the economy and tax cuts that have come in a stream of more than 30 executive orders and 13 actions through the Congressional Reviews Act.
In Johnson County, most of the public displays about Trump’s first 100 days have been sharply critical, with gatherings nearly weekly around the county urging opposition to his administration’s various moves, including critiques of cuts spearheaded by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, tariffs levied on nearly all trading partners and moves to deport those in the country illegally.
This past Sunday, an event in downtown Overland Park drew an estimated 800 people in opposition to Trump’s policies.
Even on Wednesday, counter-protesters gathered outside the Kansas First event at Prairiefire, chanting anti-Trump slogans and waving signs and a Ukrainian flag.
What did Trump supporters at Kansas First event say?
In attendance at the event on Wednesday were a smattering of Johnson County officials, including state representatives Bill Sutton of Gardner, Sean Tarwater of Stilwell and Olathe Mayor John Bacon.
The speakers at the event included Kansas state Rep. Susan Estes of Wichita, Republican National Committeewoman Wendy Bingesser and U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann of western Kansas.
The Johnson County residents in attendance had only praise for President Trump.
Having retired from sales and marketing, Bill Burkhardt, of Overland Park, said that he likes having a businessman back in the White House. It’s what got him to vote for independent presidential candidate Ross Perot when he ran for president in 1992 and 1996.
“I’m pretty much non-political,” he said.
For Trump’s first 100 days, Burkhardt said he was impressed at his focus on immigration and tariffs.
“Like everyone else, (I like that he’s) closing down the border. All the stuff on the tariffs he’s doing, I think it’s great. It’s short-term pain, but long-term benefit,” he said.
Other attendees, including Jill Kelley of Overland Park, said they’ve voted for Trump all three times in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Kelley said she particularly supported Trump for his initiatives on education.
“I’m just excited about the changes that he’s making to give hope for the kids in public schools, to end some of the wokeness and the indoctrination that’s happening,” she said. “They can go to school and actually focus on academics instead of some of the extreme views, and forcing everyone to have that same extreme view. It’s too much.”
Mary Kay and Richard Culp of Lenexa said they support Trump because of his views on eliminating taxes and being pro-life. (Mary Kay Culp is the former state executive director of the pro-life group Kansans For Life.)
Having kids and with a grandchild on the way, the Culps said residents have been overtaxed and younger people aren’t able to afford a home in Johnson County.
“You’ve got to be in your 40s to buy a house today, even (if you’re) married with two people,” Rich Culp said. “By that time, you’ve passed your child care needs. That’s a mess. It’s really upside down. It’s upsetting.”
Kansas representatives showed support for Trump
At the event, Congressional representatives in Kansas repeated their satisfaction with Trump.
In a video conference call during the event, Republican U.S. Rep. Tracey Mann of Kansas’s 1st Congressional District praised Trump’s first 100 days, highlighting his actions on immigration, which he viewed as a key issue.
“The number-one issue in this last campaign was the border. And here we are, just 100 days in, and the numbers at the border of illegal apprehensions have plummeted,” he said.”(Former President) Biden said for four years that he didn’t have the authority, the ability to secure the border, and it was somebody else’s role. It turns out, we actually did not need new laws. We needed a president who actually enforced the law.”
Since being elected in 2020, Kansas Rep. Susan Estes — the wife of GOP Congressman Ron Estes — said that working with Trump is easier than Biden. She also praised the tariffs Trump issued, which she said equalizes the playing field for businesses in Kansas.
“We are collecting what we have been owed for a long time,” she said. “We’re getting them to have better agreements where they treat American manufacturing fairly.
“One of the things that makes Kansas Kansas is our entrepreneurship, and I believe in every single business in Kansas, that they can be highly successful when they get to compete on a level playing field.”
Trump, approval ratings dropping, has many JoCo critics
Wednesday’s event was tailor-made for Trump supporters to air their satisfaction, but it’s unclear how far beyond the walls of the Prairiefire gathering that sentiment runs.
Trump lost Johnson County in 2020 and 2024, to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris respectively, both times by near-double-digit percentage point margins.
Overall, multiple national polls also show Trump’s approval ratings dropping.
A newly-released NPR/PBS/Marist poll showed 41% of adult respondents approved of Trump’s job as president in a survey conducted April 21-23, the lowest for any newly elected president in over 50 years, according to USA Today.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat who represents Johnson County, released a statement criticizing Trump’s first 100 days, highlighting his “reckless policies,” including budget cuts and tariffs.
“Kansas families deserve so much more than chaotic policies that raise their costs and weaken their freedoms,” Davids said in a press release.
In the statement, Davids expressed support for bills like the Ending DOGE Conflicts Acts, which she stated would increase transparency and rein in billionaires’ influence in the federal government, as well as voting against his budget cuts and tariffs.
The Post reached out to the Johnson County Republican Party for comment about Trump’s first 100 days. A person at the party’s office who answered the phone declined to give his full name and said the Johnson County GOP would not comment on national issues.
“We’re focused on the local races and local events,” the man said. “We’re focused on the city council and (positions like) that. We prefer to let the higher (offices) handle (statements on Trump).”
Local Republicans remain excited
While Republicans at the event didn’t discuss Trump’s approval rating and joked about his critics — frequently name dropping Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, who have been drawing sellout crowds on a joint tour around the country in recent weeks — they expressed excitement for the country’s future under Trump.
“One hundred days is somewhat of an arbitrary number … Rest assured, he’s not going to slow down in any way, shape or form,” Mann, the Congressman from western Kansas, said via video link to the crowd. “With some perspective… if this term’s a baseball game, we are just now entering the bottom of the first inning.”
For the Culps, they said they’re looking forward to how Trump deals with taxes.
“All the taxation issues that he’s trying to face right now, sure, are big for me. So not taxing Social Security, not taxing tips. (Those are) pretty big items,” Rich Culp said. “We’re overtaxed in this country. Anything you can do to alleviate the tax is a benefit for all of us.”
