This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump battling weather forecasters and the media over “Sharpie-gate” and a Washington Post report on his “lost summer.”
As the week ended, the president was focused on the recovery effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian. He was working to help the Bahamas and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. His trade efforts with China were revived, and he put his 160th judge on the federal bench.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2019
But he also continued to battle the media over his early claim that Alabama was threatened by the hurricane and the image of a map that appeared to have been altered with a Sharpie to include an outer band of the storm touching the state. By the end of the week, NOAA said the president was correct, but that didn’t settle the issue.
The president was also irked by a Post story describing his summer as a waste. His top communicators penned an op-ed in the Washington Examiner blasting the story, and the president tweeted an attack on the article. On Saturday, the paper published a headline that included the words “Hurricane Trump…”
“On Wednesday, it appears the White House attempted to retroactively justify a tweet that President Trump issued over the weekend in which he warned, erroneously, that Alabama would be affected by Hurricane Dorian.” https://t.co/p4ANzCebwX
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) September 5, 2019
Conservative grader Jed Babbin gave the president a “B” for the week, and focused on trade and the ongoing peace talks in Afghanistan.
Jed Babbin
Grade B
President Trump had a mostly quiet week while everyone focused on the path of Hurricane Dorian and no one watched the CNN seven-hour “climate change” marathon.
Trump was apparently on the verge of announcing a peace deal with the Taliban when the fourth U.S. soldier in two weeks died in Afghanistan as a result of a spate of Taliban attacks. The failure to require a cease-fire before negotiations commenced was a huge mistake. The deal — which may be delayed by the recent U.S. service members’ deaths — will reportedly not include any means of enforcing the Taliban’s pledge to divorce itself from other terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS. In short, it’s going to be a lousy deal at best.
I want to congratulate @senatemajldr Mitch McConnell and all Republicans. Today I signed the 160th Federal Judge to the Bench. Within a short period of time we will be at over 200 Federal Judges, including many in the Appellate Courts & two great new U.S. Supreme Court Justices!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
Now that the courts have cleared the way, the Pentagon announced that it was reprogramming $3.6 billion in military construction funds to building about 175 miles of the Trump border wall. Thanks to Mexico’s (!) actions in limiting them, the flow of illegal aliens has abated in the past couple of months.
The stock market, which has dropped quite a bit in the past two weeks, rebounded on the news that another round of U.S.-China trade talks would commence in October. The prospects for a deal remain dim, but on Wall Street, even dim hopes are enough to start the bulls running.
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
