White House Report Card: Trump struggling politically but wins more stimulus

This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump with a couple of wins on immigration policy and added coronavirus stimulus spending, but struggling politically with Joe Biden and stung by criticisms of his public wondering about using a concoction of disinfectant and ultraviolet light to cure virus victims.

One of our weekly graders, pollster John Zogby, gave a D+ and noted that while the president has a 46% approval rating, it is low for a “wartime” leader. Our other grader, conservative analyst Jed Babbin, grading C+, warned of the growing national debt and unemployment and rapped the president’s “leadership skills.”

John Zogby
Grade D+

The president is actually doing good things. Congress is passing relief and recovery funding directly to individuals and small businesses, and the COVID-19 task force is trying to stay on top of this worsening crisis. Trump’s polling numbers remain stable at 46%, but as noted previously, those are not sufficient for a wartime president. At the same time, he has lost trust on handling the virus crisis — negative numbers well beyond the automatic percentages of those who simply hate him. As of today, he is behind in most battleground states in hypothetical matchups against former Vice President Joe Biden, which (while very early) are also not good for someone who should be a rallying point for the nation.

The president’s biggest problem is his insecurity — beyond that of the famously insecure Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. He simply has to dominate every show and try to display how much he knows while in the process revealing how little he knows. He would do much better if (a) he did not show up to the task force briefings or (b) merely introduced the briefings and let the professionals talk. But then, he really wouldn’t be Trump anymore.

What stands out this week is not the second tranche of stimulus money for small businesses, but Trump’s suggestions about ultraviolet light and disinfectants as a cure for COVID-19. That produced warnings from manufacturers, including Lysol, and a look by task force leader Dr. Deborah Birx tantamount to “What am I doing here?” He also never commented on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that blue states should declare bankruptcy and not receive any relief from the federal government. Trump continues to be the wrong man for the moment.

Jed Babbin
Grade C+

Trump had a week of ups and downs with another new high in unemployment claims, a big win in the Supreme Court, and a couple of moments in which he could have displayed leadership but didn’t. Meanwhile, Congress’s addiction to spending porn remains unrestrained.

The economy continues to contract, as displayed by more than 4 million people in the United States filing unemployment claims, bringing the total to over 26 million due to the pandemic. The president certainly isn’t to blame, but because it happened on his watch, he’s nevertheless responsible.

Trump has, for several weeks, encouraged the reopening of our economy. When Georgia’s governor said he’d reopen his state’s businesses, Trump said it was too soon to do so. He’s probably right, but his criticism of Georgia’s actions displayed a lack of leadership skills. So did his conversation at one daily briefing about injecting disinfectants as a way to stop or cure the virus. Injecting disinfectants such as bleach would not affect the virus but could easily kill the person injected.

On the plus side, Trump warned the Iranians to stop harassing Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s naval force consists of a lot of high-speed small boats that regularly come within a few yards of U.S. ships. Trump ordered our Navy to shoot up any Iranian boats that harass our ships. It’s a long-overdue warning that should be acted on by our guys.

Trump won a big victory at the Supreme Court this week, the high court sustaining a lower court’s decision that immigrants, even permanent legal residents, can be deported for prior criminal convictions. That’s a commonsensical decision that supports Trump’s overall policy goals.

Meanwhile, Congress passed another $454 billion in stimulus money. Trump has to realize that continued vast spending will slow the economy’s recovery rather than stimulate it. Spending porn is an addiction that’s impossible to cure in Democrats and big government Republicans such as Trump. Congress is already talking about more. Trump should (but almost certainly won’t) veto any further spending.

John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on Twitter: @TheJohnZogby

Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter: @jedbabbin

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