President Donald Trump on Saturday brushed off his inability to win a quick Ukraine peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin at their high-stakes three-hour summit in Alaska on Friday, while showing anew that he is not giving up his goal to end their war.
The president said that he would push on in his peace efforts by greeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington, D.C., on Monday. In a Truth Social post, he said he would urge Zelensky to embrace talks to a full peace settlement and a potential trilateral meeting to cement that deal.
While the media parsed the Alaska summit, White House officials said the president successfully revived the U.S.-Russia relationship after it hit rock bottom under former President Joe Biden, opening several doors to a peace deal and better trade relations.
A great and very successful day in Alaska! The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO. It was…
— Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) August 16, 2025
The summit capped another historic week for the new president, who seems to make history every week and keep our graders of the Washington Secrets weekly White House Report Card busy.
In addition to the summit, Trump’s move to take charge of Washington, D.C., which has been plagued with high-profile violent crime, took center stage as did new questions about how his tariffs are impacting inflation.
Democratic pollster John Zogby graded the week an “F,” and revealed to Secrets his new survey showing that more Americans than not are “ashamed” of Trump. “We have been polling that question since 1998, and that is by far the lowest set of numbers we have seen,” he said.
Conservative grader Jed Babbin graded the week a “C-plus,” but saw many highlights to note.
John Zogby
Grade: F
The good news this week for President Donald Trump is that last month’s annualized inflation rate was down to 2.7%. The bad news is that the figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics which the president has taught us to not trust. It doesn’t get any better for him.
Crime in the nation’s capital is a problem, even if crime rates are down. But federalizing the National Guard and appointing a new ‘police commissioner’ is not resting well. The whole idea of troops patrolling Washington, D.C., is not the image a fellow who wants to reduce the government’s footprint in our lives ought to be displaying.
Only 31% believe that the president can be counted on to tell the truth and even fellow narcissist Curtis Sliwa has asked Trump to stay away from his New York City Republican mayoral campaign.
Our latest John Zogby Strategies poll finds that only 36% of likely voters are proud that Trump is president, while 51% are ashamed. That includes only 23% of independent voters who are proud, while 57% are ashamed. We have been polling that question since 1998, and that is by far the lowest set of numbers we have seen.
Then we get to the Big Nothing Burger in Alaska, which at this point anyway appears to have been disrespectful to everyone on this planet except the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Jed Babbin
Grade: C+
We have a little catching up to do, having not done a grade last week. In the past two weeks, President Donald Trump has managed to: declare a covert war against the drug cartels, order a count of citizens to exclude illegal immigrants, and counter a nuclear threat from Russia by repositioning two of our ballistic missile subs. And Trump nationalized the Washington, D.C., police force and ordered 800 D.C. National Guard troops — as well as a slew of FBI and DEA agents — to the District to round up many of the criminals who are making D.C. a deadly destination.
The covert war on the drug cartels has already met with a little success. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum already surrendered to Trump 26 supposedly high-ranking people in the cartels. Good luck with that. There will be many more caught or killed in this war.
The repositioning of our subs was perfect, both strategically and tactically. The Russians heard about it quietly and backed down.
The illegal-free census may cause a constitutional problem. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment requires all people be counted except “…Indians not taxed.” Trump isn’t going to get that Census without a huge constitutional fight.
The nationalization of D.C. cops and National Guard can only last 30 days. In that period, Trump and new D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanne Pirro want to make the District safe. That’s a tall order given the fact that most people risk being carjacked at gunpoint if they go into the District by 12-year-olds. As Pirro said, punks have been getting away with too much for too long. There have been over 100 arrests already. Trump said he wants to get an extension of his authority, but the Democrats in Congress will block him.
Another bit of good news is that Trump’s tariffs are pouring billions into the federal treasury. But, of course, Trump’s tariff authority is being challenged in court.
Deportations of illegal immigrants are at about 1,300 per day and already exceed 1 million.
And then there’s the Alaska “summit” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump said there was a lot of progress, but no peace deal for Ukraine. Putin seems to be able to talk Trump into or out of anything Putin desires, such as Trump’s pre-summit threat of massive sanctions. Trump’s failure is entirely obvious to the world.
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 and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
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.