White House report card: Trump’s ‘weekus horriblis’ and a new gig for Mike Pence

Welcome to Washington Secrets. It’s Friday. Another week over and another week closer to the midterm elections. As usual, we run the rule over President Donald Trump’s week. Plus, we have details of a new gig for Mike Pence, his former vice president.On Monday, President Donald Trump visited General Motors’s Milford Proving Ground in Michigan, where he spoke to thousands about rebuilding the auto industry and bringing manufacturing back to America. Aides say he will ramp up domestic travel and defend his policies as the midterm elections approach. In Michigan, he urged automakers to manufacture “tiny little” cars like those seen in Europe.Trump attended the funeral of Lindsey Graham on Tuesday. In his eulogy, he said, “Nothing of consequence happened in this Capitol without Lindsey Graham knowing about it.” He also met with Volodomyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, and Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, who were in Washington to pay tribute to their late ally. Wednesday began badly, with news of an Iranian attack on American targets in the Middle East, ending an informal pause in fighting. Trump told Fox News he was “going to beat the f***ing s***” out of Iran.Later in the day, he continued his efforts to rebuild Washington and the international airport that serves it. In the Oval Office, and armed with a laser pointer, he announced a $22.5 billion renovation of Washington Dulles International Airport. It will end the use of the widely disliked “people movers.” They were designed as temporary “mobile lounges” where elegant travelers could sip cocktails while being taken to their planes, but they have long outlived any sense of glamor.Thursday brought a sudden pivot to Gaza. Remember the Board of Peace? Trump announced out of the blue that it had brokered a deal for Hamas to completely disarm alongside the withdrawal of Israeli forces. A Hamas official immediately said that was not how it would work, and Israel preempted Trump’s Truth Social post by saying it had expressed its reservations to Tony Blair, the former British prime minister who holds a senior role on the board.The president is due to leave Washington on Friday, first for a Cabinet meeting at Camp David, followed by a weekend at Bedminster, his New Jersey golf club.So what did our two strategists make of it?Jed Babbin: D- Trump’s “Board of Peace” for the Gaza Strip has apparently reached a deal with Hamas that would see Hamas disarm and Israel withdraw. YGBSM. Meanwhile, the president met with Netanyahu and Zelensky, the Democrats are making hay over the Iran war, and the Fauci hearing seemed to be a dud.Dr. Anthony Fauci, famous for, with former President Joe Biden’s help, forcing people to get the COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs, appeared before a Senate committee on Wednesday with predictably yawn-worthy results. Fauci pleaded the Fifth a number of times, which appears to have enraged a lot of people. But Fauci is old news, and the COVID-19 scandals are over. There are a lot of things far more important than Fauci these days.The widening Iran war engulfed Egypt in a drone strike that encompassed the Suez Canal, which had, so far, been beyond Iran’s attention. The tit-for-tat strikes the United States is making on Iran are not changing anything, least of all Iran’s behavior.Speaking of which, everyone understands that Iran has complete control over Hamas. Now the “Bored of Peace” has hatched a scheme that requires, as noted above, both Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawal. Neither will happen. Hamas won’t disarm while it’s controlled by Iran, and Israel learned its lesson. It withdrew from Gaza in 2006, and the result was the Oct. 7, 2023, genocidal attack by Hamas.Trump’s war with Iran seems to be unpopular everywhere you go, especially in the major cities. Noo Yawk Mayor Zohran Mamdani is one who seems to be capitalizing on the fallout, and his ambitions don’t end with the city’s mayoralty. Look for him to run for governor or senator in the next few years. He’s ineligible for the presidency, born in Uganda, but he’ll expand his horizons. You can bet on it. The Democratic Socialists of America will propel him because their other hot prospects, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are unashamedly incompetent.Jed Babbin (@jedbabbin) is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.John Zogby: Grade F As Her Majesty, the late Queen Elizabeth II might have put it, this past week was another “weekus horribilis” for Trump.Because the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held too late to make last week’s deadline, it only has to be said that Trump sank to a new low in his performance. He was bitter, foul, inappropriately and gratuitously outrageous at times. At other times, he played second string to Andrew Dice Clay. Remember him? No? Good.In short, he wasn’t funny, and he was cruel at the same time.In his tasteless eulogy of Graham, he said, “Lindsey never met a war he didn’t like.” That’s praise at someone’s funeral?Speaking of war, Iran launched missiles at U.S. bases for the first time since Trump paused U.S. strikes. The U.S. is bombing again, albeit a little slower, because we are running out of missiles.With Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan now fully engaged, Trump’s war, supported by just 28% of the public, has truly become a regional war.On the economic front, the nation’s GDP now stands at an annualized 1.5%, the price of oil hovers around $90, and folks don’t seem to want to talk about the new White House ballroom.The Federal Reserve did not change interest rates, and there is now a very public and growing rift among GOP senators over the passage of the SAVE America Act. There is a real possibility that Trump may lose his nomination of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to the permanent post.The last 12 polls for July show his approval rating at 38%, and a new CNN poll shows that Trump is now down by 8 points among non-college-educated white men, a cohort he won by 23 points in 2024. And only 27% now feel that the president has the right priorities for the country, while 73% feel he does not.John Zogby (@ZogbyStrategies) is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should. His podcast with son, managing partner, and pollster Jeremy Zogby, can be heard here. Pence takes new teaching role Mike Pence, the former vice president, is speaking at the Western Conservative Summit at Colorado Christian University on Friday. And, alongside his defense of traditional conservative values in the face of populist noise, he has an announcement to make.He is joining the university as a visiting faculty member, teaching a course with Provost David Corbin “exploring the enduring principles of the American founding and their relevance to the challenges of our own time,” according to the text of his speech shared with Secrets.“I cannot imagine a more meaningful way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday than investing in the next generation of leaders who will write the next chapter of the American story,” he will say (or has just said, depending on when you read this).PENCE WILL NEED A BIGGER OFFICE IF HE’S GOING TO SAVE CONERVATISMIn the past year, Pence has positioned himself in the role of the conservative conscience of the Republican Party, as it begins to reckon with the end of Trump’s time in power and the future of a movement upended by celebrity populism. His speech on Friday continues the theme, celebrating the successes of the Trump-Pence administration, while centering the traditional conservative principles that made it possible.The second Trump administration has gotten a lot right, in his view: tax relief extended, illegal immigration at historic lows, crime down significantly, Iran’s nuclear ambitions kneecapped. But it has strayed from the principles of that first term.“It has been tossed about by a tempest of populism, protectionism, and isolationism that deserves thoughtful scrutiny,” he says.The key lines:On the world stage: “If America were to step back from her leadership role, it would create a vacuum that hostile powers like China and Russia would be eager to fill. And those nations seek to reorder the world in their own image: less free, less prosperous, and far more hostile to the very values that have united the free world for generations.”At home: “Protectionism is doing the opposite of what was promised — killing thousands of American manufacturing jobs and driving up the cost of just about every product the American people buy. The so-called Liberation Day tariffs that were imposed on friend and foe alike amounted to the largest tax increase in American history — paid for not by foreign competitors, but by American families and businesses.”Abortion: “Perhaps most troubling to traditional conservatives like myself, there has been a marked departure from the clear, principled pro-life leadership that once defined our movement, replaced with ambiguity. The president asking for ‘flexibility’ on the issue of taxpayer-funded abortion would have been unthinkable during our administration.”Don’t expect Pence to run again in 2028, although he hasn’t ruled it out, naturally. But there is a lane for an old-school conservative to zag while the Trump loyalists are zigging. Who will it be?Lunchtime reading The MAGA media machine is fracturing: An analysis of 12 top right-wing influencers shows their audience is shrinking, adding to Republican worries ahead of the midterm elections. Is it easier to be a rabble-rouser when your party is in opposition?China’s robot army has Trump running scared: China may be ahead, but the starting gun in this race has only just been fired.You are reading Washington Secrets, a guide to power and politics in D.C. and beyond. It is written by Rob Crilly, who you can reach at [email protected] with your comments, story tips, and suggestions. If a friend sent you this and you’d like to sign up, click here.