Overall, President Trump and his White House team have been scoring some key campaign promise victories, notably this week on drastically reducing illegal immigration and Obama-era regulations. But it was all overshadowed again by bigger headlines on the failure to repeal Obamacare, his insults to loyalist and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the unexpected resignation of spokesman Sean Spicer amid a staff divide over hiring a Wall Street exec, Anthony Scaramucci, as communications director.
Our graders weren’t too divided, though they focused on different aspects of the lousy week.
John Zogby
Awful, horrible week for the president. His promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, then simply repeal, then simply replace, then simply let it die — all dead. He has lost his press secretary and split his internal advisors over the choice of a Wall Street nurtured communications director. He is in open dispute with his own attorney general — an early loyalist — over the latter’s recusal in the Russian investigation, with new revelation showing Sessions present at at least two meetings with the Russians.
Add to that, some of the companies he has taken credit for persuading to keep jobs here are moving them overseas. His trip to London has been ‘postponed’ by the UK not the White House. There is a ceasefire in Syria and an agreement to stop helping moderate opposition to the Syrian regime — notably because these folks are not prepared to rule.
Too much noise and disarray. It is now six months in office for the new president. Not doing so hot.
Grade F
Jed Babbin
There’s no getting around it: this was a bad week for President Trump’s politics and policy decisions. The Senate surrendered to its inability to pass an Obamacare replacement. Its fall back plan, to repeal without replacing, is burning on the runway days before scheduled takeoff. This bodes ill for the other big legislative items on Mr. Trump’s agenda, especially tax reform. The Republican leadership in Congress is as responsible for this red hot mess as the president is. But if Trump’s lack of political clout isn’t repaired quickly the rest of this year isn’t going to be better for him than the first six months of his presidency. It’s not at apparent how that can be done.
The Trump administration certified to Congress that Iran is fulfilling its obligations under the Obama nuclear weapons deal. This was done despite, as pointed out here last week, we haven’t a clue of what Iran is doing at its Parchin facility, believed to be the center of its nuclear weapons program.
Mr. Trump, in meetings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit, had agreed to create a joint American-Russian team to improve cyber security. Though Mr. Trump had reportedly backed away from the plan, it has — in a move that’s nothing short of bizarre — been revived. Talks with the Russian government are reportedly under way. This is tantamount to Smokey Bear partnering with an arsonist.
In a New York Times (!) interview Trump bashed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, saying he’d not have hired Sessions if he’d known Sessions would recuse himself. Sessions couldn’t have known that he’d need to recuse himself, and was correct in doing so. The president is very much off base in his criticism.
The president decided to end the supposedly secret CIA program to arm Syrian opposition forces who have been battling Assad’s terrorist regime. This will please Russia, but won’t help anything we are — or should be — doing in Syria.
Grade D-
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is and author of We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him at @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him @jedbabbin
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
