In this week’s White House report card, President Trump is facing a new crisis, the heated and violent reaction to the police death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. It comes as he moved to punish China for the coronavirus, withdrew from the World Health Organization dominated by China, fought with social media platforms and watched with glee Wall Street’s bounce back after the nation begins to open.
The nation also passed the 100,000 deaths from COVID-19, and tragic as it is, Vice President Mike Pence said that the numbers would have been much higher had the administration not moved quickly to fight it. The number is lowest predicted in a government model.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin gave Trump a B+ for the week, and said the president’s decision to ban travel with Brazil a good move considering the coronavirus disaster there.
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded Trump a D, and noted that in his latest survey, Trump is losing to former Vice President Joe Biden by 13 points with support from some conservatives.
Jed Babbin
Grade B+
President Trump had a really busy week warring with Twitter, suspending travel from Brazil and seeing U.S. the death toll from the COVID-19 disease pass 100,000.
Trump has used Twitter as a substitute for major speeches. He’s using it to campaign, to announce policy and to bash everyone who disagreed with him. For the first time, Twitter began posting “fact checks” on Trump’s tweets based on CNN (!) reports which are infamous for their inaccuracy and blatant bias against Trump. Trump then threatened to severely regulate the social media causing them all to froth and fume.
Trump signed an executive order on Thursday seeking to limit internet providers’ immunity for posting and censoring materials. It apparently had zero effect. Twitter censored one of Trump’s tweets the following day. Whatever the executive order’s effect, it’ll be tied up in litigation for months or years.
Looting leads to shooting, and that’s why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night – or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot. I don’t want this to happen, and that’s what the expression put out last night means….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 29, 2020
Trump’s suspension of travel from Brazil was the right thing to do. The South American country is suffering an enormous outbreak of the COVID-19 disease.
Every state began reopening its economy, some slower than others. The New York Stock Exchange reopened its trading floor and the nation seems to be reviving quickly.
He looks better! https://t.co/qzxn6Svlpc
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 28, 2020
Likely Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden emerged from his Delaware burrow long enough to say that any black voter who couldn’t decide between him and Trump wasn’t black. The Babylon Bee reported that it would no longer take the time to write parodies of Biden’s statements and would just publish them verbatim from now on.
John Zogby
Grade D
President Trump’s approval numbers are dropping a few points and a new John Zogby Strategies/EMI Research Solutions poll has him 13 points down against former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump is only polling at 40% — and 28% of conservatives say they would vote for his opponent.
The president’s tweet about looting leads to shooting was tasteless and gratuitous. While he did call the family of George Floyd in Minneapolis and he called on the FBI to expedite its investigation of the policemen involved in this awful incident, his good gestures were nearly canceled out by his crass words.
At the same time he has continued to blame China for the COVID-19 crisis and he has announced the formal withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization — both poorly executed and ill-timed. He has announced a new deal with China but I haven’t seen the reporting on it yet.
Trump is, in the words of a predecessor, a ‘divider’ not a ‘uniter’. This is not good.
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
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. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
