This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump under fire from some in his own party over his national emergency declaration to build the wall but a step ahead of the crowd of Democrats hoping to unseat him in the 2020 election.
Democratic pollster John Zogby, who weekly grades the president along with conservative analyst Jed Babbin, said that while Trump continues to struggle in the polls, the Democrats aren’t offering a credible alternative.
“Trump will be hard to beat,” he said in his grade comments. He noted that the president isn’t polling well in the states he shocked Hillary Clinton in 2016, but that doesn’t mean he’s in trouble of losing.
“He is not polling well in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. When did he ever? But you gotta beat him with something,” said Zogby.
John Zogby
Grade C
President Trump remains incredibly unpresidential, but he is aided and abetted by several members of the press who remain incredibly un-press-idential. The news on television seems to begin with, ‘Can you believe what he did (or said, or tweeted) today?’
Mr. Trump’s kinship with Kim Jong Un has fallen apart for the moment as the North Korean dictator promises to continue his nuclear tests. Israel and Gaza are lobbing bombs at each other. ISIS may be defeated militarily, but its message still inspires the alienated.
I’d like to thank all of the Great Republican Senators who bravely voted for Strong Border Security and the WALL. This will help stop Crime, Human Trafficking, and Drugs entering our Country. Watch, when you get back to your State, they will LOVE you more than ever before!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 15, 2019
The president submitted a budget that promises a $1.9 trillion deficit, drastic cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, and $8.6 billion for his wall along the Mexican border. His proposals are dead on arrival and put GOP members of Congress in a difficult position as they get set for another campaign. Both houses of Congress have rebuked him on his attempt to declare a national emergency so he could unilaterally build his border wall.
His polling numbers are steady at about 43 percent, but some polls have him higher. Meanwhile, more Democrats enter or promise to enter the 2020 race. Trump will be hard to beat. He is not polling well in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. When did he ever? But you gotta beat him with something.
Jed Babbin
Grade B-
President Trump, having gone through two pretty awful weeks, recovered a bit this week.
Most of the political news this week was not about Trump but the 15 Democrats vying for their party’s nomination to oppose him next year. Sen. Bernie Sanders has the bucks, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke has the buzz, and everyone is trying to figure out who Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, and Marianne Williamson are.
Trump’s FY 2020 budget hit Congress this week. It provides for spending cuts in a bunch of domestic programs and more dollars for the defense budget than allowed by the Budget Control Act of 2011’s sequestration mechanism which is still, unfortunately, in effect. The budget is DOA in the House and won’t get far in the Senate either.
The best news for Trump came in the form of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s statement that impeachment isn’t on the table because it’s too divisive and — in her opinion — isn’t worth it. Unless the Mueller investigation comes out with real proofs of conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russia in 2016, the avalanche of investigations launched by House committees will all be for nothing.
Today, President @realDonaldTrump signed the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, which protects millions of acres of federal lands and permanently reauthorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund. pic.twitter.com/2e320Fv8im
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 12, 2019
The president suffered a probably meaningless blow when a dozen Republican senators joined all the Senate Democrats in passing a resolution to cancel Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund his signature border wall. Trump’s veto will almost certainly stick because neither the House nor the Senate vote was by the two-thirds margin needed to override.
The Senate also broke with Trump this week by passing a resolution under the questionably constitutional War Powers Act to require the president to end all U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen. That, too, will have only symbolic effect.
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
