This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump on the edge of his Oval Office seat waiting to see what’s in the just-filed Russian collusion report from Robert Mueller, who himself must be relieved it’s over.
Trump, in Florida, is also coming off a week during which he muddled his sanctions war on North Korea and engaged in a weird Twitter fight with the husband of top aide Kellyanne Conway.
Our graders were split on Trump, with Democratic pollster John Zogby giving him an ‘F’ for poor behavior and conservative analyst Jed Babbin more supportive with a ‘C+.’
John Zogby
Special investigator Robert Mueller has submitted his final report to the attorney general of the United States. I have no idea what is in it, but for the moment, the report is not the issue.
The simple fact is that President Trump is simply not a good person, a role model for the young, a moral leader, or a healer. Mr. Trump is petty wayward adolescent. He certainly has a significant string of successes in policy, and he remains popular among his base, but he reveals a dark side like few other presidents. Andrew Jackson was mean, petty, and racist. Andrew Johnson was a crude drunk in way over his head. Woodrow Wilson did not suffer fools. Lyndon Johnson was a mean-spirited bully, and Richard Nixon ruined a brilliant mind with a memory of hurts and an obsession with revenge.
It is my pleasure to announce that @StephenMoore, a very respected Economist, will be nominated to serve on the Fed Board. I have known Steve for a long time – and have no doubt he will be an outstanding choice!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 22, 2019
But Trump takes the worst from all of these men and simply never stops. His ongoing rants against Sen. John McCain are so profoundly disrespectful that one has no words left that can express strong enough condemnation. The silly (actually make it stupid) pettiness in the Conway thing displays the worst of middle school behavior. He decides policy on the basis of whether he personally likes a dictator today or not. He has won a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on detentions of those who cross the U.S. border illegally which is simply heartless.
His poll numbers are down a few points because he maintains strong support with his base. And he cannot be ruled out as a strong contender for 2020. But is this really what we need and want?
Grade F
Jed Babbin
President Trump had what should have been a very good week — featuring an executive order on free speech in colleges, new sanctions on North Korea, and a big win in the Supreme Court — marred by his Twitter rants on the late Sen. John McCain and adviser Kellyanne Conway’s husband.
Trump won big when the Supreme Court reversed (yet another) “Ninth Circus” ruling which had held that unless illegal immigrant criminals were detained immediately after serving state sentences for other crimes, they could not be re-arrested. That, of course, strongly supported the “sanctuary state” policy in California which banned local law enforcement from notifying the feds when an illegal alien who had been imprisoned for another crime was being released. The SCOTUS win is a huge blow to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and all the other supporters of sanctuary cities and states.
The illegal immigration problem has grown more severe every week this year. More than one thousand illegals are released every day now because detention centers are full, and Democrats won’t change the law to enable people to be turned back at the border or deported more quickly. So far, the congressional liberals haven’t tried to override Trump’s veto of their cancellation of his national emergency decree to use funding not appropriated by congress for the purpose of building the wall.
Trump almost did very well by further tightening economic sanctions on North Korea. Two Chinese companies, which had been violating the sanctions, were separately sanctioned. Nevertheless, the North Koreans are making no move to disarm their nuclear weapons or ICBMs. But on Friday, he tweeted that the additional sanctions were canceled.
George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2019
On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order that threatens colleges and universities with cutoffs of federal funding if they don’t protect free speech on campus.
Amid those events, Trump continued his war against the late John McCain in Twitter and in an Ohio speech. Trump claimed to have approved the McCain funeral and complained he didn’t get credit for it and blaming McCain for spreading the now-discredited ‘Steele dossier’ — a product bought and paid for by the Hillary Clinton campaign — on which the FBI and Mueller investigations of Trump were based. In other incidents, Trump feuded with George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband, in ridiculous tweets. Both incidents were unworthy of any president and products of Trump’s inflated and overly-sensitive ego.
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 the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
