The contrasts in presidential leadership were fully on display this week, with President Donald Trump logging his most consequential seven-day span yet and former President Joe Biden’s four-year fog finally confirmed as an undeniable fact.
Trump started the week by announcing a trade and tariff truce with China and a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, who he said were on the verge of nuclear war.
He then traveled to the Middle East, cutting trillions of dollars in deals, winning commitments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar to help build peace in the region and invest in America. He welcomed Syria back into the world community, and possibly got Iran to back off its campaign to build a nuclear weapon.
His critics, meanwhile, struggled to make hay out of Qatar gifting America and the Air Force with a new jet that they hoped could be used as a backup Air Force One, and Moody’s Ratings grade for the nation cut a notch. Trump was quick to brush off charges that the jet was a payoff to him, and supporters noted that two other credit agencies had previously downgraded the U.S. during the administrations of former President Barack Obama and Biden.
To everyone confused by the “hair swinging” ritual in Trump’s UAE visit:
That wasn’t random. That wasn’t a TikTok dance.
That was ancient. Intentional. Royal.Here’s what it really meant:
The ritual is known in Gulf Arab culture especially in the UAE as part of a ceremonial… pic.twitter.com/RT1SYyqG8g
— 589bull (@589bull10000) May 16, 2025
Which brings us to Biden’s disaster week. He was body slammed by a new book detailing examples of his senility and health crises, both covered up by White House staff, Democratic leaders, and the liberal media. And at the end of the week, the Justice Department released taped interviews with Biden from an inquiry of mishandled classified documents in which he did not recall when his son Beau died or even when he was in office as vice president.
Keeping Joe Biden in office was criminal. Listen to this Robert Hur audio with Biden. Good lord. Remember Biden tried to blame Hur for bringing up Beau. It was clearly Biden himself who did. Biden has no idea what’s going on here. Again, this is criminal: pic.twitter.com/XGRG7q9EHH
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) May 16, 2025
For this week’s White House Report Card, both graders saw it as Trump’s best. Conservative analyst Jed Babbin graded it an “A-minus,” and said, “This was a pretty great week.” Democratic pollster gave it a “C,” and said Trump succeeded in his Middle East trip to “redefine his American First agenda.”
Jed Babbin
Grade: A-
There was no other way to grade it: this was a pretty great week for President Donald Trump.
He began by engineering a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, which could have otherwise resulted in a very big war. Then he obtained the release of Eden Alexander, the only remaining living American hostage that Hamas took on Oct. 7, 2023. And that was before he began his Middle East trip.
While in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Trump was feted, honored, and given gifts both small and large, including a $400 million Boeing 747. (The gift was from the Qatari government to the U.S., not Trump, so it’s legal and doesn’t violate the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause.) One big issue is whether nations such as Qatar — which harbored Hamas leaders for about a decade — are really America’s friends. They aren’t, but Trump is too susceptible to flattery, which he got loads of in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Another is the fact that the new jet will have to have all computers and radios removed and replaced to protect communications security. It will have to be scrubbed from nose to tail for passive listening devices and such. That will take at least six months before it can be used by the president.
The better news is that Trump got nearly $2 trillion in purchases from the U.S. and investments in our country on this trip, including a $600 billion investment by Saudi Arabia and Qatar Airways’ $96 billion purchase of Boeing airliners.
There’s a lot to be said for Trump’s diplomacy, but not for his possible nuclear weapons deal with Iran. That is likely not going to succeed because Iran will never abide by its obligations. Trump threatened “maximum pressure” on Iran if it doesn’t come to a deal, which is short of his prior threats of military action. Success there means a failure of the negotiations.
John Zogby
Grade: C
Donald Does Diplomacy.
President Donald Trump’s trip to the Middle East was a huge success in a number of ways. He used it to redefine his American First agenda. He forged new and renewed old alliances. He approached pariahs and offered them a way to get them into the world’s big tent. He humiliated Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now backed into a corner at home, globally, and by his chief sponsor.
The remaining American Israeli hostage was released this week and penned a short note while in transit to meet his family: ‘Thank you, Mr. Trump’. For Bibi — ouch! The U.S. has now placed itself in a position to be more of a broker in any ceasefire and longer-term solution. Even Trump, in calling for an immediate ceasefire, has gone further than he has gone before.
Perhaps even more significant is that Trump came away from his first international trip having made himself look larger on the world scene, while certainly making both critics and friends in Congress appear so much smaller. Foreign policy is the real instrument any president can use to establish authority, and Trump made music this week.
All that said, the week was hardly a success in other areas. He may have bought some time with a 90-day China tariff package, but members of his party as well as business leaders big and small feel that he capitulated, even surrendered to the Asian giant. But the stock market soared on the news. And inflation rose by .2%, the lowest increase in four years. But even the Fed wonders what is next, inflation, recession, or stagflation?
A new survey of 100 countries showed that U.S. popularity has declined dramatically, as we are now viewed less favorably than China. CHINA! A majority now has a negative view of the U.S.
About 1,200 white South Africans were allowed refugee status to enter the U.S., while all applicants of color were rejected.
The puffed-up president came home to a failed congressional vote on his “big, beautiful” budget bill.
Chief Supreme Court Justice John Roberts was explicitly implicit in chastising ad hominem attacks against individual judges who disagree with the president, warning that the rule of law is endangered in the U.S. And a student speaker at the New York University commencement, added two minutes on to his speech condemning Israel’s behavior in Gaza. For that, he was denied his diploma pending an investigation to seek the right disciplinary action against him. Really?
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired the leaders of an internal intelligence group that wrote a Venezuela assessment that disagreed with the administration’s policy.
Trump is still 4 points upside down in his approval rating. And, of course, there was the controversial gift by Qatar of the $400 million luxury jet to the president. Yeah, right. That won’t happen until Catholic cardinals elect an American pope.
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
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 X @jedbabbin.
John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Survey and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book, Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should, was just released. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.