For conservative analyst Jed Babbin, Trump’s moves in his second week were home runs worthy of a strong “A.” He praised the president for moving quickly on his campaign promises and undoing the worst of former President Joe Biden’s policies.

For Democratic pollster John Zogby, it was a return of Trump’s controversial policies from four years ago, drawing a grade of “F.” Zogby concluded that “he revealed himself to be the worst person to hold the position.”

From our perch, Trump continued to make good on his long list of campaign promises. He came through on his promise to kill Biden-era regulations, ended DEI programs, started to drain the swamp, made good on a pledge to dump those he felt weaponized the government, and unleashed bruising tariffs on Canada, China, and Mexico.

We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens.

They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him. pic.twitter.com/sCvCO4HQQv

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) February 1, 2025

Along the way, he upset the liberal media and lefties on Capitol Hill and drew fire from the courts. His administration scored a big win when special envoy Richard Grenell won the release of six Americans from Venezuela after meeting with dictator Nicolas Maduro. And he crossed the line for some in suggesting that DEI policies could have played a role in the tragic and deadly crash of an Army Blackhawk helicopter into an American Airlines jet.

All in all, it was deja vu Trump.

Jed Babbin

Grade: A

It was another great week for President Donald Trump and his crew. Their pace in achieving many of his campaign promises hasn’t slackened one bit. The week began with Colombia’s president not allowing landings of deportation aircraft. Trump then threatened massive tariffs on Colombian goods and Colombia’s president backed down, even offering his personal aircraft to assist in picking up illegals being deported from the U.S. To paraphrase Samuel Johnson, the prospect of being hung in the morning focuses the mind wonderfully. 

The reporters of our media are supposedly exhausted by the frenetic pace of Trump’s presidency. They deserve no pity because it’s their responsibility to report what he does.https://t.co/6OCmTwhBeT

— Jed Babbin (@jedbabbin) January 28, 2025

In addition, Trump managed to:

• Order creation of an Iron Dome missile defense for the entire U.S.
• Order the holding of 30,000 of the worst of the illegal immigrants at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility. That threat may cause many to self-deport. (I’ve been to Gitmo, and it ain’t a fun place).
• Offer buyouts to all federal employees. The bureaucrats don’t want to follow his other order requiring them to show up at their offices. This will, I hope, result in a significant reduction in the federal workforce.
• Order all federal agencies to ban transgender people from bathrooms not in accordance with the gender assigned at birth. This is consistent with his order that the government will only recognize two genders.
• Cancel former President Joe Biden’s order protecting Venezuelans from deportation.
• Order that transgender people can no longer serve openly in the military.
• Abolish all DEI offices in federal agencies.
• Freeze all federal aid — including to other countries except Israel and Egypt and excepting Social Security and Medicare. (That order has already been blocked by a federal court.)
• Trump has already managed to undo much of the damage done by Biden. Trump obviously realizes that he has a limited time to accomplish what needs to be done. And the beat goes on. 

John Zogby

Grade: F

Last week, I gave President Donald Trump an ‘A’ for being resolute in implementing several of his campaign promises during his first week in office. This week is another story. Let’s just say that his two-week average is now C. His second week has been pitiful, a reminder to all of his worst personal flaws. He launched a massive roundup of ‘illegal immigrants‘ who were alleged to be criminals and now has instituted metrics for goals of such roundups. Since the percentage of such migrants is small, ICE and local officials will soon be dragging up and out those who are law-abiding, along with their families. Just to meet arbitrary quotas. This will include raiding schools, hospitals and workplaces — all open fields for raids.

Then he froze government spending in the forms of grants and loans in a vaguely-worded two-page memo that frankly scared the bejesus out of federal employees, local and state elected officials, grant recipients, and millions of dependents. A federal judge (appointed by President Ronald Reagan) immediately blocked this action and the order was rescinded by the White House in very short order.

Trump capped off his ‘weekus horribilis’ (as Her Majesty Elizabeth II might have said it) with a cringeworthy public statement blaming the Democrats for DEI programs that led to the hiring of ‘incompetent’ air-traffic controllers and other personnel to be blamed for the terrible American Airlines/U.S. Army Helicopter crash that killed all 67 onboard the aircrafts. In essence, he was also insulting non-whites and LGBTQ Americans within hours of the tragedy. Not only did he have no evidence but he revealed again sentiments that are not only insensitive but also cruel.

My job is to review and score presidential behavior without letting my ideological leaning get in the way. Historians will ultimately judge whether Trump ranks among the best, middling, or worst among his predecessors or successors in this office. But this week he revealed himself to be the worst person to hold the position. He will have to do a lot better and I will be watching.

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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.