The budget deficit alone is a reason not to give him an A. And when I say "budget deficit," I'm not talking about this year. I can excuse a big deficit in a crisis. That's what the borrowing power is for. I can't excuse it for the previous years when the economy was strong and revenue was at record levels.
After a good first year, he has become a cluttered mess on foreign policy. Democrats did a laughably crappy job proving their case on Ukraine, so I wouldn't have impeached him over it. However, he definitely did something stupid.
On Covid, he has been all over the map. The narrative that he has handled it worse than anyone in the world and that we shouldn't blame China is wrong and ignores the nature of our federalist system. However, his messaging has been incoherent, and publicly fighting with his own people on it is foolish. He should have let Mike Pence truly take the lead on the issue.
And of course, he has accelerated the departure of suburbanites from the GOP and cost us control of the House and could very easily cost us the Senate this year. And for what? So he can be a turd-flinging monkey on Twitter while he's sitting on the toilet?
He probably broke the law with his Goya pitch. It's not a big scandal, but it's still illegal.
What has he done well? Appointing conservative judges is good. The deregulation is good. Being willing to accept the reality that China is an enemy is good. Dealing harshly with Iran is good. Exposing the media as partisan frauds is good. At least making an effort to secure the border is good even if there was no serious plan to address the broader problem.
He's a B-. Some very good stuff but some pretty bad stuff and lots of needlessly tripping over his own dick for little or no benefit.
Last edited: Jul 19, 2020