This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump on a high, having won support for his new secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, judicial picks and nearing a potentially historic meeting and denuclearization deal with the North Koreans. What’s more, rapper Kanye West talked up the president, the Senate finally OK’d Trump’s pick to be ambassador to Germany, the top gay in his administration, and he named the Marine’s first black female general. Is the Nobel Prize next, asked some of his supporters on social media?
This week conservative Jed Babbin scores Trump with a B+ while pollster John Zogby grades a C.
Jed Babbin
President Trump had a really good week, meeting with two world leaders, succeeding in Senate action confirming Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s breaking part of the Democrats’ logjam on other nominees.
Trump laid on a glitzy reception for French President Emmanuel Macron, the first state visit of Trump’s presidency. He was reciprocating for the lavish reception he was given in France last July. In talks, the French president apparently failed to convince Trump to maintain the 2015 Obama nuclear weapons agreement with Iran, which Trump is expected to revoke around May 12.
Historic: President Trump nominates Marine to be first black female general https://t.co/8fIR4Hbz1H
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) April 18, 2018
Friday’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel was neither glitzy nor newsworthy except for the fact that she, too, failed to convince Trump to keep the Iran deal.
The confirmation of CIA director Mike Pompeo to be secretary of state came after Trump’s personal intervention with some senators, including libertarian Rand Paul. Pompeo, who has Trump’s confidence, hit the ground running. Hours after his confirmation, he left for a NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, planning to visit Riyadh and Jerusalem after that. He had, effectively, been in the job already. His then-secret meeting with Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang was to set up the agenda for the coming meeting between Trump and Kim.
McConnell has also filed cloture on the nominations of several federal circuit court judges. Previously, senators from the state of any federal judge’s residence at the time of his nomination could file a “blue slip” barring consideration of the nomination until it was withdrawn. Trump and McConnell are apparently fed up with months of Dem stalling and are blowing up the blue slip blockade.
MAGA! https://t.co/jFf5ONASlv
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2018
The only downer of the week was the withdrawal of Adm. Ronny Jackson’s nomination to be Veterans Affairs Secretary. A setback for Trump, but only a minor one.
The stage is being set for Trump’s summit meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. South Korean President Moon Jae-in met with Kim in the demilitarized zone between the two nations, and they reportedly have agreed to finally end the Korean War which informally ended with a cease-fire in 1953. The two also talked about “denuclearization” of the Korean Peninsula. Nothing can or will be done until the Trump-Kim summit, but Moon’s meeting helps set the agenda.
Grade B+
John Zogby
The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.3 percent pace and economists project that it will be stronger the rest of the year. The leaders of the two Koreas have made history and mutually agreed on making the peninsula a nuclear free zone while restoring some visiting opportunities and family reunification. The devil is in the details but this is a pretty good week on that front.
The media reports of the Mueller investigation is a muddle of contradictions and feeds the dragons on the left and right. Will President Trump be charged with crimes? Did he admit that his personal attorney helped him out a little in this “crazy Stormy Daniels” thing? Is the president imploding as many folks saw during a 30 minute rant on Fox’s morning show? Or was it just an angry and frustrated leader expressing himself yet again about the nasty establishment — something that his base really can identify with?
Meanwhile, the president won a victory in the Senate by getting his choice for secretary of state approved and now has in place a foreign policy team that appears to be in sync. While a third judge has struck down the Trump’s travel ban, another has reinstated DACA. The former will now be in the hands of a sympathetic (to the president) Supreme Court — but that is for another week. Too much going on all at once. But the president’s approval ratings hover around the mid-40s.
Grade C
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
