This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump on the verge of another major foreign summit, this time in Vietnam for his second meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It was a week where the president saw some polls edge higher, including one showing suburban women backing his demand for border wall funding.
Our conservative grader said overall it was “pretty quiet” for the president. But the summit and other foreign policy decisions facing the president could heat up next week.
Jed Babbin
Grade B
It was a pretty quiet week for President Trump with no major action on foreign and defense matters while the press eagerly awaits the report of special counsel Robert Mueller. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has plans for next week to overturn the president’s declaration of a national emergency to fund border wall construction, and violence broke out on the Venezuela-Brazil border on Friday.
We have just built this powerful Wall in New Mexico. Completed on January 30, 2019 – 47 days ahead of schedule! Many miles more now under construction! #FinishTheWall pic.twitter.com/TYkj3KRdOC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
U.S. allies warned against a full withdrawal from Syria, saying that their forces would not stay longer than ours. Trump announced that a token force of about 200 troops would remain in Syria indefinitely. Turkey and Syria are waiting for us to withdraw so they can attack Kurdish forces that have been fighting alongside ours to defeat ISIS. Negotiations with Turkey to declare a safe zone for the Kurds have gone nowhere. Where there should be a U.S. strategy on Syria, there’s only indecision.
On Friday, reacting to Pelosi’s plan to overturn the national emergency declaration to fund the border wall, Trump said he’d veto any such resolution. It’s not at all clear whether the Senate will pass such a resolution or — if it’s vetoed — whether either house has the votes to override the veto.
U.S. negotiators are working with their Chinese counterparts on a new trade deal. They’re coming up to a March 1 deadline, after which new U.S. tariffs will be added to those Trump has already imposed. China’s economy is suffering, but the prospects for a deal are very uncertain.
We are here to honor the extraordinary contributions of African-Americans to every aspect of American Life, History and Culture. From the earliest days of this Nation, African-American Leaders, Pioneers, & Visionaries have uplifted & inspired our Country…https://t.co/VuFLkfd12j
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2019
Trump is heading off to Vietnam for a second summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un next week. It’s highly unlikely that any deal will result from that summit, but talking is better than fighting.
Next week will be very interesting. Maybe Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will confirm that he has nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with North Korea. Though Trump claimed Abe did so, Abe has ducked the question.
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
