President Trump ended his rally in Macomb County Saturday with encouraging words for the crowd of his supporters.

The president skipped out on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and spent the night in Washington Township for a “Make America Great Again” rally.

President Trump spoke for a little more than an hour and a half.

He touched on a wide range of national issues, as well as things pertinent to the state’s election and Northern Michigan.

“We know what we’re doing with your locks,” said President Trump. “We’re gonna start that as soon as I get back.”

During his speech, President Trump said that a fix for the Soo Locks is long overdue.

Your lock isn’t working too well, it’s not working too well,” said President Trump. “It hasn’t been fixed in 50 years, in all fairness.”

“I told your congressmen, ‘Write that name down for me,’” said President Trump. “It’s the Army Corps of Engineers. We’re gonna be calling them. It could be tonight, depending on the time we get back.”

One of those congressman is Republican Jack Bergman, who rode over with the president to the venue.

“I sat next to him on the way over,” said Bergman, who represents Michigan’s 1st District. “We had a nice chat — it was myself, Congressman [John] Moolenaar and Congressman [Paul] Mitchell. We really had a nice half hour to talk to the president about things that are important in Michigan.”

Congressman Bergman says the aging infrastructure dominated the conversation.

“He wants to know what we need here in Michigan as it relates especially to the greater needs of the country,” said Bergman. “We explained to him if the Soo Locks shut down, manufacturing shuts down across the country.”

“After spending all that money in the Middle East, can you imagine? And we can’t fix a lock… we’ll get it fixed,” said President Trump.

It was also clear that part of the president’s reason for stopping in Michigan is to increase Republican voter turnout in midterm elections.