This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump treading water but buoyed by one poll showing him at a high 51% approval rating.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin noted that Uncle Sam’s spending is out of control but that Trump is scoring some wins in foreign policy. Democratic pollster John Zogby sees trouble ahead as troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan but notes that his son Jonathan Zogby’s Zogby Analytics survey shows Trump’s new approval rating.
Jed Babbin
Grade C+
It was an up and down week for President Trump. The “ups” aren’t that good. A new record for federal spending has been set and the standoff with China seems fragile. The downs include a stock market slump, the nearly-dead deal with Guatemala to host asylum seekers and the seemingly neverending clashes with Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
The feds managed to spend $3.72 trillion through July, an all-time record that isn’t, in any respect, a good thing. Trump is a big-spender himself and is enabling the liberals and big-government Republicans to have their way. He says he’ll cut spending in his second term (if there is one), but that promise is hard to believe.
Great news! Tonight, we broke the all-time attendance record previously held by Elton John at #SNHUArena in Manchester, New Hampshire! https://t.co/GHvFBkA2KZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 16, 2019
The “safe third country” deal with Guatemala, by which that nation would offer asylum to would-be illegal immigrants to the U.S. seems to be falling apart. Guatemala’s new president said that his country lacked the means of implementing it. Needless to say, the flow of immigrants from Guatemala itself is far from trivial and also will not be stopped or slowed.
The Dow Jones slipped about 800 points on Wednesday and has been sliding up and down all week on investors’ fears of the tariff war with China and the low yield on government bonds. Some of the biggest economies in the world — especially China’s and Germany’s — have slowed greatly. Recession predictions may come true, but right now, it sounds like wishful thinking by the Democrats.
The oddest idea of the week is Trump’s reported desire to buy Greenland from Denmark. The idea is hard to take seriously, but the Danes do. They’ve already said “no sale.”
At Trump’s urging, Israel barred a visit by Reps. Omar and Tlaib because they are anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions agenda that Palestinian activists are pushing. This was loudly condemned by some Trump critics, many in the media, and a few others as “unprecedented.” Hardly. The U.S. has banned dozens of people for political and criminal justice reasons as have Russia, China, and pretty much every other country bar people as has Israel in the past Omar and Tlaib wanted a platform to denounce Israel and it was denied them. Big deal. (Tlaib was offered the chance to enter Israel to visit her Palestinian grandma, but she turned it down.)
Trump is in a standoff with China’s Xi Jinping over trade and the repression of Hong Kong. Trump pulled back on tariffs scheduled to go into effect in September in hopes of a trade deal. He’s also not speaking out about the Chinese effort to put down protests against China by huge crowds of Hong Kong demonstrators against Chinese repression. At the same time, Xi isn’t sending a mass of troops into Hong Kong (at least yet) to recreate the Tiananmen Square massacre of 30 years ago. The standoff won’t last forever. Trump needs to tread carefully, but he can’t continue to fail to speak out for freedom.
John Zogby
Grade D
A very strange and controversial week for President Trump, but perhaps not as strange or as controversial as CNN’s Chris Cuomo’s week after he got in a verbal tussle after somebody referred to him “Fredo,” the Godfather weakling.
The president’s buddy in North Korea has resumed missile tests. A possible new deal with the Taliban could allow Americans to leave Afghanistan in time for 2020 but bring that country even more chaos, violence, and repression. More and more folks are talking about either a recession or at least a serious slowdown — enough for Trump to back down on many of his promised tariffs.
Denying visits to duly elected Members of Congress is not consistent with being either an ally or a democracy. We should be leveraging that aid to stop the settlements and ensure full rights for Palestinians.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 16, 2019
He intervened with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to prevent two congresswomen from entering the West Bank, then watched Israel relent, then attacked one of the lawmakers.
And a new poll shows him losing to the top four Democratic candidates. But my son’s poll at Zogby Analytics has his approval at 51%. If that is what my son has it, then that is what it is.
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 latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby
