Welcome to Friday’s Washington Secrets, where we are gearing up for the United States Men’s National Team (is that the worst nickname in soccer?) to take on Paraguay (La Albirroja or “The White and Red”) at the World Cup tonight. As usual, we bring you our review of the president’s week with our two political strategists.
You can always rely on New York sports fans. When Donald Trump was shown on the Madison Square Garden jumbotron at Game 3 of the NBA Finals on Monday, he was roundly booed. He was the first sitting president to attend the Finals. But none of that mattered to a Knicks fan base that now blames him for ending a 13-game winning streak.
It was that sort of week. Trump was able to indulge some his passion for sports (with his UFC fight coming this weekend) while Iran exploded and then fizzled in the background, and the president flexed his muscles in Washington with mixed results.
Work was completed on the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool last weekend, with attention turning to other bits of the president’s construction projects, such as his triumphal arch. The work generates plenty of headlines, but as Secrets reported earlier this week, it may not move the dial much with voters.
At about the same time, Iran launched strikes on Israel. Trump spoke Sunday with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to urge restraint. Netanyahu heeded the request… eventually.
By Thursday, a frustrated Trump was ready to lash out. He promised “bigger” and “more powerful” strikes on Iran, and hinted to Fox News that he was ready to seize Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal, in what would be a major escalation. And then the threats evaporated almost as soon as they arrived, with Trump telling reporters in the Oval Office that a deal was close, and could even be signed this weekend.
In the meantime, the president suffered a setback over a key surveillance law. The House left for a break (after an exhausting eight days of work in the past three weeks), leaving Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to expire tonight. The impasse stems from Trump trying to install Bill Pulte, currently director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, as acting Director of National Intelligence. There’s a lot to unpack in all of that.
Anyway, what did our Republican and our Democrat make of it all?
John Zogby: Grade F
What an effing bad week for the president. You see what I did there?
Last week ended with the Bureau of Labor and Statistics reporting that 125,000 new jobs were created in May, well above what economists projected. That’s the good news.
The problem is that the public is talking about inflation and, at the same time, prices rose by an annualized rate of 4.2%, according to the same source. In polling, about three in four U.S. voters say the economy is poor, more Americans believe that President Joe Biden did a better job on the economy than Trump. The dragged-out, unpopular war in Iran is now intersecting with inflation, and neither is going well for the president.
To make matters worse, Trump said he “loves the inflation” because it reveals how much the U.S. is winning the war against Iran. Notice to POTUS: That is not how people are framing it at dinner tables in middle America. Besides, what does that even mean?
The president yelled at Netanyahu and warned him to stop bombing Lebanon. The Israeli leader promptly ignored his longtime buddy, and Trump looked weak — two words that he himself would never use in the same sentence. And now his own veep is saying that the war in Iran might last another year.
Our John Zogby Strategies polling has already revealed that this scenario would be disastrous with the public. Trump, at least as far as I know, has said that the U.S. has a deal with Iran at least 39 times in public. But the bombing continues. Until, on Thursday night, he ordered a stop to the U.S. bombing and said there is a “deal” for the 40th time!
He once again charged corruption and conspiracies in the California primaries, where his endorsed candidate lost the race for mayor of Los Angeles. His tantrum on Meet the Press and disrespect for host Kristin Welker was a low point — let’s just say a low point in many ways.
Finally, he defied political, law enforcement, and sports world punditry by attending the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs game at Madison Square Garden, where he got booed, dissed, and caused havoc in the city. The Knicks lost the game after a 13-game playoff winning streak. Then the mighty Knicks won two nights later without the president in attendance.
Remember when 2016 candidate Trump famously said that he could probably shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not get prosecuted? I wonder now.
John Zogby 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. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
Jed Babbin: Grade C-
This wasn’t a good week for Trump and his team. Congress left town on another vacation and abandoned FISA Section 702 in the process. The Iranians seem to be gulling us into more delays, but no peace agreement. And while the economy appears to be roaring along — the Dow Jones Industrial Average is over 51,000 — inflation is starting to bite.
Congress abandoning Section 702 seems more to spite Trump than anything else, but Trump isn’t paying attention to it. It’s a key to defending the nation, but the Democrats don’t care, and neither does Trump. He should have demanded that Congress stay until Section 702 was reauthorized.
For about six weeks now, Trump has been telling us that a deal with Iran is just around the corner. But it isn’t, and hasn’t been. The Iranians are still demanding that they keep their nuclear weapons program, that the U.S. arrange payment of billions of dollars to them for the privilege of reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and that they will keep their highly-enriched uranium — all of these are red lines Trump doesn’t want to cross. How long they will keep rolling over us is entirely up to the president. By now, he should have resumed the bombing campaign to send the Iranians back to the Stone Age.
Meanwhile, back in Maine, Democrat Graham Platner won the nomination for a run at Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). Platner has (had?) a Totenkopf — a Nazi death’s head symbol — tattooed on his chest. The question is whether he has had it covered with another tattoo for the campaign or just left it alone. Platner is totally disqualified by the Totenkopf tattoo, but Mainers still voted for him. The descent of the Democratic Party into slavish antisemitism is amazing to behold.
Jed Babbin is a Washington Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin.
Who’s up and who’s down?
It is not only the White House under the microscope here at Secrets. Today, we look at the other winners and losers from the week that just went by.
Good week
JD Vance: The vice president has had a tricky few weeks, losing ground in the shadow 2028 race to Marco Rubio, who has supporters lining up to say what a nice chap he is and what a great sense of humor he has. So Project Vance hit back this week with fun family photos of the Vances with their new chicken coop.
House members: They flew out of Washington last night and won’t be back until June 23. But they have earned their break. They have been in session for a full eight days since their Memorial Day holiday. Secrets says: Enjoy the break!
Bad week
Gianni Infantino: It should be one of the best weeks of the FIFA chief’s life. Yet he is a figure of hate as the World Cup kicks off with headlines about empty stadiums, exorbitant ticket prices, fans banned from travelling to the U.S., and a Somali referee sent home. If you are at a game and you hear boos, chances are that Infantino has just been spotted.
America’s closest ally: Journalists were due to gather at the British embassy today to hear about the nation’s latest defense spending plans. Instead, the event was canceled after the British Defense Secretary quit his job, complaining that London was falling short in its commitments. Wait till Trump hears…
Lunchtime reading
US urges Starmer to boost defence spending: Elbridge Colby, Donald Trump’s undersecretary of war, piles pressure on the British prime minister. “There is again a great need for more British military strength in this critical time,” Colby says. “We urge the U.K. to meet that need with urgency, scale, and determination.”
It’s the age of Sanders, too: Graham Platner’s success is a reminder that Trump and MAGA aren’t the only dominant force in the country. Running parallel to the Trump era has been the Sanders era: the rise of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) from socialist gadfly to Democratic Party kingmaker, writes Matthew Continetti.
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