While Zogby’s grade was a disapproving “D” for the week, I said, “At least you’ve got to agree he isn’t standing still,” to which Zogby responded, “He is not standing still!!!”

The highlights this week were led by Trump’s aggressive joint session speech to Congress and his on-and-off tariff threats. But every day, he also unleashed a list of other orders, from threats to Iran for seeking a nuclear weapon to ending a $400 million subsidy to Columbia University, which is sitting on a $14 billion endowment.

Also notably, this week, Trump offered up DOGE chief Elon Musk to angry House and Senate Republicans and the Cabinet to yell at for moving too quickly and secretively to ax federal fat. For now, all appear satisfied that Musk will use a scalpel instead of a chainsaw to eliminate waste.

Overall, Zogby wasn’t approving of Trump’s week, but said the Democrats and their protests were worse. Conservative grader Jed Babbin offered a promising “B,” pleased that the president threatened economic actions against Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Jed Babbin

Grade: B

President Donald Trump had a very good week, beginning with his Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress and ending with sanction threats against Russia for its continued attacks on Ukraine. He further threatened Hamas terrorists if they didn’t quickly return all of its Oct. 7 hostages.

In his Tuesday address, Trump continued to lay out his aggressive agenda, and the Democrats made fools of themselves. They held up little paddles with the words “lies,” false,” and “Musk steals” on them. Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was thrown out of the House chamber for standing up and shouting at Trump.

Remember that the catch-all felony that landed many J6ers in prison and carries a max of 20 years is obstruction of an official proceeding. (18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2)).

Al Green’s toddler antics certainly qualifies as obstructing an official proceeding.pic.twitter.com/fLJ36NP1Ln

— Eric Matheny 🎙️ (@ericmmatheny) March 6, 2025

The Democrats are left without any response to Trump. All they can say is, “Orange man bad,” without any policy suggestions to counter his agenda. It’s proof that the party is bankrupt: no ideas, no policies, and nothing to counter Trump.

The president this week also threatened massive sanctions against Russia for its constant attacks on Ukraine. Those sanctions could include (but probably won’t) sanctions against European nations that still buy natural gas from Moscow. Trump canceled intelligence-sharing with Ukraine which the Brits and French will try to compensate for.

Trump threatened Hamas with an end to their existence if they didn’t release hostages from its horrific Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Trump has made this threat before and hasn’t done anything to enforce it. His hands, like those of the Israelis, are pretty much tied. He can’t carpet bomb Gaza because it would kill too many people, and Hamas would kill more hostages if he did. He can’t send the 101st Airborne or the First Marine Division into Gaza for the same reason. Hamas responded that they won’t release the hostages until there’s a permanent cease-fire and Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza. The Israelis won’t do that, and Trump is left with an almost-empty threat. He needs to figure out how to get the hostages freed. Maybe send in SEALs and Delta Force?

Trump’s agenda suffered several setbacks in court this week, with the Supreme Court holding that stopping payment on USAID grants and such was unconstitutional because the money was appropriated by Congress. Trump will try to get around the decision, but it’ll be very tough to do.

John Zogby

Grade: D

President Donald Trump did not give the greatest speech in American history, but it did accomplish what it set out to do. He offered a morale lift to his base just as he demoralized Democrats in the room and across the nation. Trump not only swatted dead the Democratic bug, he ground it into the carpet. The party of FDR and JFK was reduced to holding silly paddles where the only thing missing was the elastic band and rubber ball that would hit them in the head when they missed.

Best line of Trump’s speech tonight is right here. Well done. pic.twitter.com/mvxgf0YHEl

— MAZE (@mazemoore) March 5, 2025

His joint session speech was filled with braggadocio, exaggerations, and outright lies. Good thing that fact-checkers are not employed by the federal government, now on a Trump firing binge. He exploited silly things (a litany of wasted spending by Social Security, for example) and taunted Democrats for pushing immigration legislation to fix the border crisis when all the nation “really needed was a new president.”

He touted his actions on gender, border enforcement, a peace deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war, more oil and gas drilling, removal of  the “poison of critical race theory in schools” (where it doesn’t actually exist!), and reciprocal tariffs. He promised action on initiatives on a Golden Dome missile defense, autism, domestically produced microchips. He basked in the moments when he told human interest stories, (which were very moving).

He was bolstered by taunting Democrats, including one who rolled her eyes when the Secret Service director honored a 13-year-old boy suffering from brain cancer with an honorary agency badge. A key Trump moment came when a cane-holding Rep. Al Green (D-TX) was booted from the chamber for protesting the speech.

His polling numbers, however, did not move an inch one way or another, and other than the speech, Trump had a terrible week. The stock market plummeted; he changed his position on tariffs a few times in as many days; he angered veterans by laying them off from federal jobs; he watched as the Centers for Disease Control had to hire back 180 workers who were dumped so they could deal with a serious measles outbreak; he imposed limits on DOGE Captain Elon Musk when there was rebellion from his own Cabinet who were seeing serious pushback from the public; and he lost a major Supreme Court decision which ordered reinstatement of payments for USAID contractors.

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Plus, the February jobs report was underwhelming for a second consecutive month, and now we are hearing talk of a “forced recession to reduce inflation.”

He would have gotten an even lower grade, but the “F” is reserved for the Democrats this week.

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.