White House Report Card: Trump tariffs working, 2020 reelection looking difficult

Compared to the previous week, this one was a pretty dull seven days for President Trump. His threats of tariffs on Mexican exports seemed to have worked to get our southern neighbor to — at long last — help reduce the surge of illegal aliens and his threats of more tariffs on Chinese goods were both positive developments. Some of his political problems this week were of his own making — such as his statement on accepting foreign information on political opponents — and some weren’t, such as the awful anti-Trump budget cobbled together by the House Armed Services Committee.

Trump plans to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the coming G-20 summit. His threat to raise tariffs on more Chinese exports may not be enough to get the trade deal he wants with China, but it’s already weakened China’s economy.

The subpoena wars continue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed a resolution empowering committee chairmen to go directly to court to enforce subpoenas.

Attorney General William Barr dodged one contempt citation by working out details of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler’s demand for the unreacted version of the Mueller report. (Nadler will get everything except for the legally-restricted grand jury material.) Barr didn’t dodge another, from House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings. Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross were cited for contempt for refusing to produce documents on why the question on citizenship is planned to be included in the 2020 Census.

House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff has subpoenaed former national security adviser Gen. Mike Flynn and one-time Trump campaign aide Rick Gates to testify in Schiff’s everlasting Russia probe. This will only result in another court fight at least regarding Flynn who is still cooperating with the Justice Department.

The big kerfuffle of the week was over Trump’s statement that he’d accept foreign information derogating political opponents. Trump was asked whether his campaign would accept damaging information on his opponents from foreign governments — such as China or Russia — or hand it over to the FBI. He said, “I think maybe you do both. I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening.” The Democrats went nuts over that statement even though it’s not at all objectionable. Trump can’t not listen to foreign leaders who may bring him information. And bringing it to the FBI’s attention if there’s evidence of criminal activity is precisely the right thing to do.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith produced his “Chairman’s markup” of the Fiscal Year 2020 Defense Authorization bill. Among other things, the bill: blocks formation of Trump’s “Space Corps,” blocks any use of defense funds to build the border wall, blocks more prisoners from being sent to the terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and prohibits the deployment of low-yield nuclear weapons. Oh, and it cuts $17 billion from the Pentagon budget. It’s a disaster that Senate Republicans are probably not strong enough to overcome.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of limpet mining of two more oil tankers coming out of the Gulf of Oman. This Iranian attack is another indication that the world’s principal terrorist nation, which supposedly calibrates its actions to avoid a U.S. military response, is willing to take vastly greater risks than it has before. Trump said we were unwilling to negotiate anything with Iran while this sort of action continues. He was exactly right to say so.

John Zogby
Grade: D

President Trump claimed victory on tariffs with Mexico by extracting concessions on immigration from our neighbors to the south. Then he followed that up with claiming he will continue some tariffs against them.

The U.S. is no closer to a trade deal with China and something happened to an oil tanker in the Middle East. Did Iran attack it? U.S. intelligence says yes, Iran says no. We have been here before and these kinds of things if allowed to escalate do not end well.

And the president says he would certainly look at any negative information against an opponent if it came from a foreign country and even the chair of the Federal Election Commission had to remind him that that is illegal.

Plus new Zogby Analytics polling confirms that the resident is in trouble for reelection in several battleground states.

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