Welcome to Friday’s Washington Secrets, and our regular roundup of the president’s week. We also hear Steve Bannon explain why Pam Bondi was always up against it, and just what was the British ambassador doing in Palm Beach? (A programming note: Secrets is taking an Easter break, so there will be no newsletter on Monday, but we’ll be back, refreshed, on Tuesday.)
The Iran war remains the focus of President Donald Trump and the White House, and it was a televised address on the subject that anchored the week. At the same time, the president moved on from one of his Cabinet members who has attracted negative headlines.
On Tuesday, Trump held a signing ceremony for a sweeping executive order on elections framed as a crackdown on mail-in voting fraud. It directed the U.S. Postal Service to assign barcodes to mail-in ballot envelopes and required states to cross-reference federal data to purge ineligible voters from their rolls.
At the same event, Trump said that military operations against Iran could end in two to three weeks.
But he suffered a legal setback elsewhere, when a federal court ordered a halt to his $400 million White House ballroom construction.
There were more legal matters on Trump’s mind Wednesday. He visited the Supreme Court to hear arguments on his birthright citizenship order. Was it an attempt to intimidate the justices? They seemed unimpressed by the administration lawyers’ arguments anyway.
In the evening, he delivered a 19-minute address on the war in Iran. If you had been listening to his previous comments and read his Truth Social posts, you had heard most of it before.
The next day, he fired Pam Bondi as his attorney general. She had been ridiculed by members of Trump’s circle for her awkward handling of the Epstein files (apparently confirming the existence of a client list, for example). Perhaps more damaging for her was the difficulty she faced trying to prosecute Trump’s political opponents.
Friday began on a positive note. American employers added a surprisingly strong 178,000 jobs last month, rebounding from a dismal February. It meant the unemployment rate dipped to 4.3%.
Secrets gave our resident strategists last week off, while we were at CPAC. So they have an extra week to consider … with Trump’s comments on the death of Robert Mueller and insults for NATO allies looming large. So what did they make of it all?
Jed Babbin: D+
We have a little catching up to do, having taken a one-week hiatus. Trump has had quite a few ups and downs over the past two weeks, and perhaps more downs than ups.
Trump had some ugly words at the death of Robert Mueller, the former FBI chief and then-special prosecutor aimed at Trump. Trump said he was glad Mueller was dead and that he could no longer hurt anyone. Being “presidential” is such a stuffy concept, but Trump sometimes fails to even be courteous.
Trump also said our fellow NATO members were “cowards,” which seems pretty reasonable now. His big Iran speech on Wednesday night was desultory and didn’t provide any new information on what our goals are and how he plans to achieve them. He said that we will complete our objectives in a couple of weeks and that a new group of “more reasonable” leaders was emerging from the ayatollah’s regime. They’re all radical Islamists pledged to destroy the United States and Israel, and they’re not changing one little bit.
Trump did say that regime change isn’t our goal. So why are we at war with Iran and sacrificing American lives? It’s only by regime change that we can effect any change in the threat they pose.
Trump has basically told the NATO nations that if they want to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which a lot of oil and gas is shipped to Europe, they should do it themselves. Several of our NATO “allies” have closed their airspace to U.S. operations.
Trump probably wants to pull us out of NATO. It’s not inconceivable that he could, but the Democrats in the Senate will have their say (because we signed the NATO Treaty in 1949), and it won’t be a positive for Trump.
On a better note, Trump signed an executive order declaring that a national emergency requires TSA employees to be paid, despite the Democratic funding shutdown that’s now in its seventh week (a record). The Dems won’t budge because Immigration and Customs Enforcement (meaning border enforcement) funding is included in DHS funding, and the Dems want to destroy ICE. Heaven help us if a Dem is elected in 2028 and reopens the border.
On another cool note, the Artemis mission has launched into lunar orbit. This is the first time we’ve had a manned mission around the moon since the 1960s. High damned time we did it again. Now for a moon landing.
John Zogby: F
A lot has happened over the past two weeks. The president said that it was good that former FBI chief and special prosecutor Robert Mueller was dead. I really don’t need to go further to give Trump his grade, but I will.
Later, he insulted both the president of France and the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Ninety percent of American voters said they do not want this war with Iran, and 60% said it is making the U.S. weaker. Iran controls the Straits of Hormuz, trade — especially in vital oil — is choked, and the price of gas at the pump already exceeds $4 a gallon. (Ask me how I know!!!)
Trump gave a speech to the nation this week to clarify matters. It did not.
He said the U.S. is winning while Iran still has considerable capacity to strike back. And it is. He said he will bomb them back to the Stone Age, and they are begging for a deal. The war will take a few more weeks.
Zogby Strategies polling says that American support, already weak, will suffer if it is prolonged. He is allowing talk of a ground invasion by the U.S. military, which almost no one supports.
His week on other matters is, well weak. The Supreme Court looks unlikely to place limits on birthright citizenship. The president gets 31% approval on handling the economy and 27% on inflation. Congress has said no to more funding for his grand ballroom in the White House. He made his strongest words yet on pulling out of NATO and has agreed to go along with Israel’s plans in the West Bank and Lebanon, even though Zogby Strategies polling finds more Americans (48%) view the U.S. relationship with Israel as a liability than the less than one-third who see it as an asset. Incidentally, a majority views U.S. involvement with NATO as an asset.
Had Trump promised progress any of this, his grade might have been higher. But he didn’t, and he doesn’t.
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, 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 President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on X @jedbabbin.
British ambassador visits Trump in Palm Beach
The Brits have hit on the wheeze of telephoning Trump when he is at his golf club at the weekend. Prime Minister Keir Starmer knows he can talk to the president when he is in a good mood. So while insults fly during the week, they still manage a civilized conversation over the weekend.
Secrets is told they took it a step further last weekend. Sir Christian Turner, the newly installed ambassador, flew down to Palm Beach to meet Trump there in person. They had dinner together at Mar-a-Lago on Friday evening, according to Secrets sources.
They would have had much to discuss. There is the war in Iran. And this week, Buckingham Palace formally announced King Charles’s state visit at the end of this month.
But Secrets is told it was very much not a working visit. The two “shot the breeze” on Mar-a-Lago’s famous terrace and used it as a chance to get to know each other. Shop talk can come later.
Turner stuck around for a weekend of networking. He spent time meeting Palm Beach power brokers at the nearby Bath and Tennis Club (one of the places that famously didn’t admit Trump and stoked his quest for a club of his own.)
Bannon on Bondi
Steve Bannon was one of Pam Bondi’s loudest critics last year, slating her over the Epstein files. He has been quieter ever since his own relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was exposed. Yesterday, he defended her, in part because of the liberal forces she was up against.
“I am not making excuses for Pam Bondi in her performance,” Bannon said. “You have to judge that, but you have to contextualize what Pam Bondi was up against. And if there’s any area, any area where they have a distinct advantage, and a huge advantage … it’s called lawfare.”
Lunchtime reading
‘I Think It’s Time’: The inside story of Pam Bondi’s ouster — As Bannon’s comments make clear above, in some ways, it was an impossible job. Bondi was fired as she drove with Trump to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. “Later, Bondi would ask Trump if she could keep her job until the summer. The president declined.”
Graham Greene, Kim Philby and the secrets of their Cold War friendship: This is from a new book by Robert Verkaik that dives deep into the friendship between the writer and the Soviet spy, and why they stayed in touch even after Philby defected to Moscow (ht John Schindler’s YourINT SITREP).
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