For his seventh week in office, President Donald Trump continued to rumble through Washington, D.C., stirring up not just the swamp but unparalleled dissent in Democratic ranks for an added bonus.
Trump continued to make sweeping cuts to the bureaucracy, finally making good on decades of GOP promises to slash the Department of Education. He said it was time to round up the usual liberal suspects who weaponized the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden. He followed through on years of wishes to impose reciprocal international trade tariffs. And he nudged Ukraine and Russia closer to a ceasefire.
The upheaval had liberal pundits such as James Carville predicting that support for Trump would collapse fast, but the opposite appears true. Instead of abandoning Trump, Americans are sticking with him, especially Republicans, even as his tariff moves rock Wall Street and hammer 401k retirement accounts.
“Republicans like what they see,” Rasmussen Reports pollster Mark Mitchell told Secrets. “GOP ‘strong approval’ is near record highs, and he’s maintaining it way better than the first time around,” he said.
A year ago, the people at the DOJ were trying to put President Trump in jail for life.
Now, his picture is in the lobby and he’s doing the dance inside the building.
Unfathomably based.
pic.twitter.com/ZOAgCvvZBs— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 14, 2025
Some Socialist-Democrats didn’t like what they saw, however, and are at war with party leaders such as Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who pushed through the Republican budget.
This week’s White House Report Card graders saw the president’s glass as half empty. Conservative analyst Jed Babbin dished a “C,” though he gave the president points for moving to deport anti-Israel foreign student Mahmoud Khalil. Democratic pollster John Zogby graded the week a “D-plus,” and decried what he sees as chaos.
Jed Babbin
Grade: C
President Donald Trump had a relatively good week but was confronted by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recalcitrance on Ukraine, bad results in his tariff war and some defeats in court.
The Columbia University “student” Mahmoud Khalil who was one of the leaders of the anti-Israel protests was arrested and his green card put on the line. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said correctly that Khalil’s arrest and probable deportation aren’t a matter of free speech. It’s a matter of how aliens are permitted to behave in this country and breaking the law isn’t and shouldn’t be allowed.
On the DOGE side, tens of billions of dollars in wasteful grants and contracts have been canceled, and more are on the line in several agencies. Even the bloated and wasteful U.S. Postal Service is cutting 10,000 employees. However, Trump’s initiatives have suffered several setbacks in court, including one judge’s order to reinstate hundreds of probationary employees. The snakepit that is Washington is biting back.
The biggest problem of the week was Trump’s tariff war. Having set high tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, Trump has suspended them. Tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from Europe have set off a trade war on wine and booze. Tariffs — and the economic mercantilism they represent — are never a good idea. Trump is finding that out the hard way.
Last and not least, after browbeating Ukraine into agreeing to a ceasefire for 30 days, Trump’s plan was delayed by Putin. Trump had gone as far as to cease U.S. military aid and intel going to Ukraine for a few days. Putin, always a very cagey opponent, wants Ukraine out of all the Russian territory it seized and to give up all the Ukrainian territory Russia has seized. Putin wants more “nuanced” issues resolved before any cease-fire is agreed to. No shock there, but Trump is left empty-handed. What can he do other than continue to aid Ukraine? This mess isn’t going away any time soon.
John Zogby
Grade: D+
This most excellent of all presidents, self-styled, had a miserable week. Despite a partial rebound on Friday, the stock market had its worst week in nearly two years. Two indicators were in ‘correction’ territory, while a third came very close. Economists and consumers were talking about a recession, only following the lead of President Donald Trump himself, who started all of the talk.
Layoffs galore in the private sector and confusion in the public sector — as what Trump’s DOGE director Elon Musk does is overturned by courts, at least for the moment.
Consumer confidence has dropped off a cliff, and last-hired veterans are first-fired federal employees. ‘Thank you for your service,’ not.
Retaliatory tariffs go around/come around, then get readjusted. Try being a CEO steering a ship with all of that turbulence. An anti-U.S. party wins Greenland’s election; the new prime minister of Canada hates the U.S.
Still, inflation ticked down a bit — good news if you have an income. Better news if you have gold. Meanwhile, Trump won his continuing resolution in Congress as Democrats fought internally about the budget legislation.
Legend has it that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Probably not true but worth mentioning. All the while, the president’s job approval stays the same.
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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.