Trump Report Card: Tripped by Roy Moore, consumer board move

John Zogby

John Zogby

Judge Roy Moore may be innocent until proven guilty but at least eight women, along with multiple local police and mall security guards, regard him as creepy beyond any reasonable doubt. Even if Alabamians elect him on December 12 it is not certain that he will be seated in the U.S. Senate because of the strong antipathy of Republican leaders and members.

In a week where the dominant news is again about the breakdown of patriarchy in a number of institutions, where the once mighty have been disgraced by degrading, immoral, and illegal behavior toward women, especially those over whom they held power, President Trump has chosen to defend Judge Moore for only one reason — he needs his vote to try to pass his promised tax cuts.

To this president there is a moral equivalency between tax cuts that will explode the national debt, will probably not lead to any significant investment, and will benefit the extremely wealthy — versus the long overdue coming to terms with systematic violation of women in the workplace and society. This is an issue that is epochal in its significance and the president not only willfully missed it, he stands counter to the progression of history — and to heroic women who have spoken up. This transcends yet another red line in North Korea or a conversation with President Vladimir Putin.

When I was a teacher for many years, my rule was that you had to show up for the final to earn an F. Otherwise you got a zero. The president did not show up and is not even worthy of a failure this week.

Grade — Zero

Jed Babbin

Jed Babbin

President Trump blew through another week in which he alternately displayed leadership and a comprehensive lack of it.

The week began with the re-designation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. That designation, which had been withdrawn by President George W. Bush in 2008, is another element in Trump’s effort to bring maximum pressure on the North Koreans for their continuing ballistic missile and nuclear weapons development. The re-designation will not have a decisive effect, but it will make it harder for the communists to deal with banks and other businesses.

Last week, Secretary of State Tillerson threatened to close the U.S. office of the Palestine Liberation Organization because it was trying to indict Israeli officials through the International Criminal Court. U.S. law requires that if the PLO goes to the ICC, its office should be closed. This week Tillerson (at Trump’s request?) backed off that threat.

Trump told Turkish President (and Islamist strongman) Erdogan that the U.S. would stop arming the Kurdish fighters who had been doing most of the fighting against ISIS. Erdogan, who earlier this year signed a treaty with Iran and Russia to protect Syrian President Assad’s terrorist regime, isn’t a U.S. friend. Turkey has been pressuring us to stop helping the Kurds for years because it wants free rein to wipe them out. But the Kurds, with the exception of the Israelis, are the only real ally we have in the Middle East. Trump’s move is an enormous blunder that will cost lives.

Mid-week, Trump kinda sorta endorsed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, saying he’d prefer not to have a liberal such as Moore’s opponent, Doug Jones. Moore has been accused of dating and sexual misconduct with girls as young as 14 when he was in his 30s. Moore’s conduct as Alabama chief justice was anti-constitutional. But Moore’s conduct as a judge is forgotten while the accusations of sexual misconduct, while unproven and denied by Moore, are driving liberals into paroxysms of anger. Though Trump is looking for votes in the senate this year and next, his quasi-endorsement of Moore has made him the target of some of those hissy fits.

It’s still entirely unclear whether Trump’s tax plan (or anything resembling it) will pass Congress. The Senate, which is to vote on a bill next week, may not be able to amass the 51 votes needed for passage. A primary reason for that is Trump’s continued absence from leadership. Lyndon Johnson would be twisting political arms while Trump is just planning to visit with Republican senators next week. If the tax bill goes the way of Obamacare reform and so much else, it’ll be on Trump’s head.

The Consumer Finance Protection Board is an unconstitutional agency set up by Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the Dodd-Frank bill. It’s unconstitutional because it draws its funding directly from the treasury instead of pursuant to congressional authorization and appropriation legislation. No executive agency can do that. This week, on the eve of his resignation, CFPB boss, Richard Cordray appointed his deputy to be acting director. Trump appointed OMB Director Mick Mulvaney to be acting director of CFPB. What Trump should have done is to cancel Cordray’s action and ask issue an executive order enforcing the constitutional bar to CFPB’s continued existence. A president who was a leader would have done that.

Grade — D-

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

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]