Weekly Trump Report Card: C for confusing, but prez still has ‘juice’

John Zogby

President Trump’s polling numbers actually slipped again. His average is down to 41 percent which means his show of strength in Syria, his meeting with the Chinese president, and his sabre-rattling at North Korea did not really move public opinion favorably as these usually do.

As he moves closer to his first 100 days in office, he has just not been able to take advantage of both a normal honeymoon nor a majority in Congress to get anything done. He appears to be fulfilling some of his campaign promises but things like defunding Planned Parenthood, building an oil pipeline throughout the Midwest, and bombing the sh— out of our enemies is just not cutting it.

It is hard to see how he gets tax cuts and reform passed, let alone a trillion dollar infrastructure bill.

But a word of caution to his enemies: Mr. Trump is not close to being removed from office. Whether or not I agree or disagree with much of what he has done, he was resolute this week. He still has the juice.

Grade C-

Jed Babbin

It was a real GBU-43B week for President Trump. Not only did he authorize the use of the Massive Ordinance Air Blast weapon – a 21,000-pound bomb – on an ISIS cave network, he managed to blow up his positions on a whole host of campaign promises.

The MOAB apparently destroyed the cave network, killing a pile of ISIS fighters in the process. The president said he was giving the military authorization to make their own decisions, an improvement over the Obama method of war fighting as big as the MOAB.

Other position changes came thick and fast. Trump called NATO obsolete during the campaign. After meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the president said NATO was no longer obsolete. What changed at NATO? Nothing noticeable. Mr. Trump hinted that he might re-appoint Fed Chairman Janet Yellen, who was another favorite target during the campaign.

Trump had also promised to label China a currency manipulator, bringing on a host of trade consequences. Instead, Trump – after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping — said he promised better trade arrangements with China if they’d help him with North Korea. He also Tweeted a warning that if other nations – meaning China – didn’t do something about North Korea, America would.

All of these actions will hurt Trump with his base, but all will be forgiven if he gets the Obamacare repeal and tax cuts he promised. If he doesn’t do both, there will be hell to pay for Republicans in November 2018.

The saber-rattling toward North Korea continued. The U.S. Air Force held a massive exercise over Japan and South Korea without notice to the North. The 18th Air Wing – the largest combat-ready part of the Air Force – launched from Kadena AFB in Japan. The media went nuts, saying Trump was about to go to war in Korea. That’s not going to happen, but he’s telling the Chinese to get on with it if they’re going to rein in Kim Jong Un. They almost certainly won’t, but Trump’s ploy is worth a try.

Grade C+

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]