White House Report Card: Slogging through immigration, buoyed by jobs – Washington Examiner

This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump continuing to be frustrated by immigration policy and stunted on replacing Obamacare, highlights in conservative analyst Jed Babbin’s poor grade. But as Democratic pollster John Zogby notes, the economy is still making jobs and the president is remaking the federal judiciary.

Jed Babbin
Grade D

President Trump had a very rough political week beginning with his threat to close the Mexican border and ending with him walking it back. In between were a vote in the House to end our involvement in the war in Yemen, frustrations with the mess in Venezuela, and the latest setback on his old promise to repeal Obamacare.

Trump is justifiably frustrated by Mexico’s failure to help prevent endless streams of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. The tsunami of illegals now amounts to 100,000 per month, over a million per year. He’s also justified and frustrated by the Democrats’ dedication to open borders. But he apparently can’t do anything about that either. His threat to close the border was cheered by his base, but everyone else — ranging from liberals who feared an avocado shortage and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to industries that benefit most from trade with Mexico — was appalled. It was a lousy idea that Trump walked back before the week ended, saying that Mexico was doing better over the past couple of days.

At that point, Trump decided to give Mexico another year to deal with the flood of illegals and drugs smuggled into the U.S., threatening tariffs on cars made in Mexico. The whole exercise made him appear uncertain and very weak.

The best Trump can do — and is doing — is to end financial aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are the primary sources of illegal aliens coming in the current flood. It’s a satisfying move, but probably won’t do anything to slow the flow of illegal aliens coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The House voted on a resolution to end our involvement in the Saudi war against Yemeni rebels who are a proxy force of Iran. Our involvement was already limited, the aerial refueling of Saudi aircraft by American tanker aircraft having ended. The Senate passed the same resolution earlier. The resolution now heads to the White House, where Trump will exercise his veto power for the second time.

Trump wanted to set up the Obamacare repeal for another round of campaigning in 2020. His promise to repeal the law fell flat in his first two years and now McConnell has said there won’t be any votes on Obamacare repeal until after the 2020 election.

As if that weren’t enough, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about the buildup of Russian troops in Venezuela. Lavrov said that Russia wasn’t trying to establish another Syria in Venezuela. Which, of course, is precisely what Russia is trying to do with the help of Iran which also has troops there. Venezuela, like Syria, will become a strategic challenge unforeseen by the United States until it is too late to prevent. In Venezuela, Russia’s involvement (and Iran’s) is a violation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which prohibits foreign involvement in the Western Hemisphere.

Lavrov’s words taunted Trump, who has said that “all options” were on the table regarding removal of Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Nicholás Maduro. The last time a president enforced the Monroe Doctrine against Russian intervention in our hemisphere brought about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

John Zogby
Grade C

President Trump is still in the White House and he is making policy. There is a possible new trace pact with China. And talks between the administrations of Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will continue. Slowly but surely the president is remaking the federal courts and unemployment stands at 3.8% after the economy added almost 200,000 new jobs in March.

Trump is still rallying and using his bully (!!!) pulpit to push for a fence on the southern border and is not afraid to alienate Mexico in the process. He also has ordered cutting tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Central American nations whose people are the major sources of entry at our border. Critics argue that such aid enables governments to provide aid and services to potential migrants in their home country.

And now the president is suggesting that he would like to appoint Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve. Will interest rates be lowered to just .0999%?

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