This week’s White House Report Card reveals the classic split over President Trump in the nation.
Conservatives like our analyst and grader Jed Babbin said Trump had a great week, in fact a grade “A” week.
Liberals like our grader and pollster John Zogby said Trump was at his worst, an “F” week.
Below are their grades:
Jed Babbin
Grade – A
It was a very busy week for President Trump. He feuded with congressional Democrats, won a round (and lost another) in their subpoena wars on him, and his administration and ended the week with aid to American farmers targeted by China and orders to the intelligence community and Attorney General William Barr designed to reveal what the independent counsel did in 2016-2017 to spy on his campaign and new administration.
Former White House counsel Don McGahn, under subpoena to appear before the House Judiciary Committee, didn’t show up after Trump ordered him not to do so. Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler is more interested in confrontation than working out the problem, so he’s probably going to hold McGahn in contempt. Trump lost a round in court when a U.S. District Court judge in Washington ordered Trump’s accounting firm to produce his financial records but stayed the order while Trump appeals. He will probably lose both battles, but the time they absorb will almost certainly carry into next year and possibly beyond.
House Democrats feel as if Trump is daring them to impeach him and he just might be. Trump walked out of a meeting on infrastructure legislation with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer when Pelosi accused him of conducting a cover-up. Trump went out to the press and said that he can’t work with those leaders while all their investigations are going on, which may be the death knell of any significant legislation before the 2020 election except for the must-pass spending and debt ceiling bills. Pelosi and Trump each said the other was nuts. Pelosi added that the White House was “crying out” for impeachment. It’s more of an “I dare ya” rather than a cry.
All of these congressional kerfuffles seem to be strengthening Trump’s hand for his 2020 campaign.
Weeks of mutual saber-rattling with Iran seemed to quiet down. Trump has been treating Iran in the same manner he deals with North Korea: maximum economic pressure sanctions and every belligerent statement answered in kind. That approach is working on both Iran and North Korea, at least for the time being.
On Thursday, Trump ordered $16 billion in aid to U.S. farmers who have been targeted by China in response to Trump’s tariff war with the Chinese. It was a good move but, again, a Band-Aid covering a much larger problem. A trade deal with China is still an important goal and one may not be reached any time soon.
Trump’s late Thursday order to the intelligence agencies — the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, and others — requires them to cooperate with Barr’s investigation into the origins of the 2016-2017 counterintelligence investigation of Trump, his campaign, and his new administration. There was, obviously, a lot of spying on Trump and his people and Barr means to find out whether and how it was justified. The second half of Trump’s order is especially important. The president is the top-ranking official in the executive branch with authority over all classified information. His order delegates to Barr full authority to declassify or downgrade the classification of any information relevant to Barr’s investigation.
From that, we can expect enormously important revelations about the activities of the Obama White House and its minions in their spy operation on Team Trump. Trump has let the dogs out and prosecutions may well result. They should.
John Zogby
Grade – F
Two more children died in detention along the southern border. A gratuitous war of words continued with Iran, this time backed by warships and war games. The U.S. is one week closer to a trade war with China.
President Trump continued to defy subpoenas by Congress, but two federal courts have now issued orders that his personal finances and tax returns be released. One bank has already complied. Trump threw a tantrum three minutes into a meeting with congressional leaders and vowed to no longer talk about infrastructure legislation or any other kind of legislation as long as investigations of him continue.
He and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are questioning each other’s sanity and the president’s polling numbers slipped in the past couple of days. Apologies to Carole King: Mama never said there’d be weeks like this.
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
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
