In our weekly White House Report Card, President Trump is readying his defense for the Senate impeachment trial that is expected to reject the partisan charges against him.
In the meantime, the economy continues to roll forward, and he continues to notch wins on his 2016 campaign promises. Our Democratic grader, pollster John Zogby, who has been teaming with me on these presidential report cards for 11 years, said, “In the final analysis, he hands in all of his assignments, half of his fellow students love him, the other half hate him. But more are able to buy better lunches than when he entered the class in 2017.”
Meanwhile, conservative grader Jed Babbin notes that the impeachment trial will also hurt the Democrats who are sitting senators because they have to be in their seats for the event — instead of last-minute campaigning for the Feb. 3 Iowa caucus.
John Zogby
Grade C
I am a few days from my 11th anniversary of doing these weekly report cards with Paul Bedard. It has been confounding at times, but I have tried hard to not be ideological — like a good professor who gives grades on merit, not agreement or disagreement with the student.
President Trump is now on trial in the Senate to determine if he will be removed from office. But there is no way he will be removed. Democrats say there are new bombshells about when and what he knew about withholding funds to Ukraine, but his defenders believe that this is not significant, that it did not happen, that it is only a ploy, etc. New revelations are promised, but the public is frozen at half wanting him removed, half opposed.
A great day at the White House for our National Champions, the LSU Tigers! https://t.co/0sbotFsMO7
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2020
He announces a new trade deal with China, but critics say the president has caved. The Senate has passed a new iteration of a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada, but it has few differences from the original agreement in the early 1990s. Whether he is behind a few points against Democrats leading in 2020 battleground states or is up a few points — we are hopelessly deadlocked about policy, politics, right and wrong, good job or bad job.
In the final analysis, he hands in all of his assignments, half of his fellow students love him, the other half hate him. But more are able to buy better lunches than when he entered the class in 2017. And he will be around for at least another year.
Jed Babbin
Grade B
President Trump had another very good week with the signing of the Phase 1 trade deal with China, his (belated but still important) spoken support for Iranian demonstrators, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s long-delayed dispatch of the Democrats’ impeachment articles to the Senate where they can be disposed of.
The president finally — having previously said that he wasn’t on the side of the Iranian people demonstrating against the Tehran regime — came out in their support. The ayatollahs’ regime is vulnerable, and Trump is wise to keep his “maximum pressure” campaign against them rolling along.
The Wednesday signing of the Phase 1 China trade deal means more agricultural exports from the U.S. but leaves on the tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods. As he said, those are his negotiating tools to get the Phase 2 agreement on protection of U.S. technology and intellectual property. The signing was a good first step.
Thank you Cincinnati, Ohio. Together, we are going to KEEP AMERICA GREAT! https://t.co/sKPAW8e8qN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 2, 2019
The White House announced that it was looking for another $7.2 billion in the military budget to divert to building the border wall. (Last week a federal appeals court released over $3 billion for that purpose.) There may not be enough that the military can spare from its construction and maintenance budgets.
After rushing Trump’s impeachment through the House because nothing was more urgent (in her judgment), Pelosi delayed sending the impeachment articles to the Senate for about a month. Her ploy was to force the Senate to hear witnesses the House hadn’t waited to depose and documents it hadn’t received. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell didn’t give in. The impeachment melodrama will dominate the news for weeks to come. How long the trial will take — during which period nothing else will get done in Washington — can’t yet be known. That hurts Democratic presidential candidates such as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar who are members of Senate and have to be in Washington instead of 11th-hour campaigning in Iowa which hosts the nation’s first caucus on Feb. 3.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His weekly podcast with son and partner Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. This week, they feature the “year of unrest.” Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
