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Inflation Skyrocketing Out of Control
00:13:54
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unidentified
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At 8:30 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 2. | |
| C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app and online at c-span.org. | ||
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| Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, Washington Examiner Executive Editor Bob Cusack will talk about President Trump's first year in office, campaign 2026, and other news of the day. | ||
| And we'll continue the conversation on Campaign 2026 with Cook Political Report Senate and Governor's Editor Jessica Taylor. | ||
| She'll also talk about the key Senate races to watch. | ||
| Washington Journal is next. | ||
| And my fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now. | ||
| That was President Trump one year ago today giving his second inaugural speech in the U.S. Capitol. | ||
| This morning, we want to hear from you. | ||
| What grade would you give President Trump on his first year back in office? | ||
| Was it what you expected? | ||
| Has he kept his promises? | ||
| Or is he focusing on the wrong priorities? | ||
| Here's how you join in on the conversation. | ||
| Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, your line is 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can also send us a text message at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Include your first name, city, and state. | ||
| You can also post on facebook.com forward slash C-SPAN or on X with the handle at C-SPANWJ. | ||
| We start this morning taking a look at the president's first year in office in his second term. | ||
| I want to show you two editorials from opposing sides of the political spectrum. | ||
| First up, we have an editorial from the New York Post. | ||
| The headline is, How Trump's First Year Victories Tee Up Affordability Wins in Year Two. | ||
| This is written by Republican Congressman Mike Lauer, and he says that 12 months ago, Americans were rightfully angry about the record inflation under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris with rates that reached nearly 9% in mid-2022. | ||
| What a difference a year makes today as President Trump marks a one-year anniversary of his second inauguration. | ||
| We're at the lowest inflation rate in five years, excuse me, down 70% from that painful peak under Biden. | ||
| Now, on the other side of the aisle, we have the New York Post, I mean, the New York Times, excuse me, with an editorial out. | ||
| The headline here is one year of Trump, the time to act is now while we still can. | ||
| That's written by M. Jessen, who says deeper down in the article, he says, to be sure, some of these elements of our current condition predate Trump. | ||
| This is a country that has long maintained the world's largest carceral system and one of the least humane systems in the Western world. | ||
| And he keeps going to say, I'm not arguing that we have become this year, that what we have become this year is just more of the same. | ||
| Few people would make this argument anymore. | ||
| But the truth is, even though we are taught to think of history as a series of definitive turning points with specific dates, wars, revolutions, assassinations, declarations of independence, and decrees announcing martial law, no transformation is instant or total. | ||
| This Trump administration has moved at breakneck speed, and still it hasn't broken anything. | ||
| It broken everything yet, the article says. | ||
| Now we have a slate of recent polls that show how Americans are feeling about this administration just one year in. | ||
| I turn first to a poll from Real Clear Politics. | ||
| It says 42% of Americans approve of the president's job approval so far. | ||
| 55% disapprove. | ||
| In another poll, it breaks down by subjects: economy, 56 disapprove, 40% approve on inflation, 61 disapprove, 37% approve on immigration, 51% disapprove, 47% approve on foreign policy, 54% disapprove, and 41 approve. | ||
| Now, in a CNN article, I mean, CNN poll that was released just a week ago, they say that according to those surveyed, 58% of Americans that they surveyed view the president's first year in his second term as a failure, opposed to just 42% who say it is a success. | ||
| Now, President Trump was in Detroit last week talking about how he feels that his administration has made headway on the economy when he was touting those wins that he believes that he's racked up in his first year in office. | ||
| Take a listen to him here. | ||
| Now, after less than 12 months in office, I'm back in Michigan to report to you on the strongest and fastest economic turnaround in our country's history. | ||
| It's really been historic. | ||
| There's never been, there's never been, we're not 12 months, we're through 11 months. | ||
| We've got $18 trillion being invested in our country. | ||
| The most of any country ever was three. | ||
| We're at 18. | ||
| There's never been anything like this. | ||
| You are so lucky I allow you into this room to even be with me. | ||
| I'm kidding. | ||
| I'm kidding. | ||
|
unidentified
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The fake news will say, Don't Trump fix these hot stuff. | |
| Right now, I'm feeling pretty good, though, I will say. | ||
| You're so lucky to be here. | ||
| Under our administration, growth is exploding, productivity is soaring, investment is booming, incomes are rising, inflation is defeated, America is respected again like never before. | ||
| And other than that, we're not doing that well. | ||
| Now, think of all those things I just said. | ||
| Every single inflation down, growth at an all-time high. | ||
| Stock market every day, 48 days in a row, 48 days during the course of 11 months. | ||
| We hit a new high on the stock market. | ||
| All of them. | ||
| One year ago, we were a dead country. | ||
| Now we are the hottest country anywhere in the world. | ||
| That was said to me by many leaders. | ||
| By almost every metric, we have quickly gone from the worst numbers on record to the best and strongest numbers, the most dynamic numbers, and an economy that is far ahead of even my optimistic scheme. | ||
| I had a very optimistic schedule. | ||
| I thought I didn't think it was, but people said it was very optimistic. | ||
| Turns out to be very pessimistic by compared to what we've done. | ||
| But we'll go down as the greatest in history, greatest first year in history nobody's ever had, just based on the numbers. | ||
| That was President Trump talking about his first year in office last week in Detroit. | ||
| Take a listen here to Hakeem Jeffries, obviously the Democratic leader over on the House side, talking about the president's first year in office. | ||
| One year later, the Trump administration has been a complete and total failure, and the American people know it. | ||
| And Republicans haven't done a damn thing to make life better for working class Americans, everyday Americans, and middle-class Americans, despite promising that costs were going to go down on day one. | ||
| Costs haven't gone down in the United States of America with Republican control of the House, the Senate, and the presidency. | ||
| Costs have gone up. | ||
| Inflation skyrocketing out of control. | ||
| Housing costs out of control. | ||
| Grocery costs out of control. | ||
| Utility bills out of control. | ||
| Child care costs out of control. | ||
| And health care costs out of control. | ||
| Everyday Americans are suffering under the oppressive nature of the Trump Republican economy. | ||
| And it's time for some congressional action to actually keep your word as Republicans based on what you said you would do, which is to focus on addressing the high cost of living in this country. | ||
| Instead, Republicans have consistently focused on rewarding their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks and then engaging out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue the largest pay-to-play scheme in the history of the country. | ||
| It's disgusting and the American people know it. | ||
| That was House Minority Leader last week talking about the president's first year in office. | ||
| Now we turn to your calls where we're asking what grade would you give President Trump his first year in office of his second term? | ||
| Jason from Alabama, an independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hey, good morning. | |
| I guess in full disclosure, I didn't anticipate giving him anything higher than a zero from the beginning. | ||
| I mean, he's proven himself to be a scumbag, but this time around, he's doubled down on his scumbaggery in every way. | ||
| He brought in Elon to take a chainsaw to the government, and that's what they did. | ||
| But nothing came out of those. | ||
| It was proven to be all a bunch of lies. | ||
| The clip you just played, where he's talking about we have the best numbers with the best numbers, best numbers. | ||
| If the numbers are so great, Republicans wouldn't be resigning early to lead the incumbents that are in the Congress. | ||
| Trump is proven that he will lie even when the truth will do. | ||
| And he's taking his time to focus on things that are so petty, it's so inconsequential that he's really not helping people. | ||
| He's not concerned about affordability. | ||
| He's not concerned about health care. | ||
| He's not concerned about manufacturing jobs because those have gone down since he's been in office. | ||
| Even though Biden was able to pass the CHIPS Act and the American Rescue Plan and the infrastructure bill and there was an immigration bill on the table, Trump has brought no type of solutions to any of this. | ||
| Jason, can I ask you, what could President Trump do in your estimation to turn things around? | ||
|
unidentified
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Defy his nature. | |
| Trump is a known quantity. | ||
| He came down the escalator in 2015 and he has been the same person ever since. | ||
| And he's proven that he does not, he doesn't apologize. | ||
| He doesn't admit mistakes. | ||
| Everything that he does is the biggest and the best, and it doesn't matter if it's contrary to reality. | ||
| He still hasn't conceded the 2020 election. | ||
| He will lie and lie and lie. | ||
| And the sad reality is his supporters will lap it up. | ||
| And the syncope he's put in place, like Hegseth, Invested, and all the rest, will go around and parent whatever he's saying because they're scooping up his crumbs on the back end. | ||
| As he's making billions of dollars off his fake crypto and all of that, they're doing their own deals on the back end. | ||
| And so they're cool with it. | ||
| David from Michigan, a Democrat. | ||
|
unidentified
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You're next. | |
| Hi. | ||
| I'd like to agree with the previous scholar. | ||
| I think his description of Trump's personal characteristics are right on. | ||
| But I'd like to take a slightly different tack and say he's the worst president in our history. | ||
| That he's acting like a dictator. | ||
| He's shredding the Constitution. | ||
| He's taking war powers and tax powers away from Congress. | ||
| He's about to ruin NATO. | ||
| He's ended our commitment to international and domestic law. | ||
| So I'm appealing to conservatives and Republicans. | ||
| You have to stop backing this man. | ||
| You have to get your Republican politicians to check him right now. | ||
| We all, all the people can check him in November. | ||
| We're going to put in a Congress that can put a check on him. | ||
| But we won't be able to really totally stop him until we get a new president and we get Republicans to reject this craziness. | ||
| Please. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Charles from Ohio, a Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, how are you? | |
| Good. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| What grade would you give the president when you're in, Charles? | ||
| Right now, I think he's doing a great job. | ||
| Why do you say that? | ||
|
Prime Minister Stahmer's Stand
00:05:55
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| Do you want to expand on that? | ||
| Well, look at how much has been done in such a short time. | ||
|
unidentified
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One year. | |
| And you actually, to change the economy, takes multiple years. | ||
|
unidentified
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You just don't change it in a year. | |
| But so they complain about things being up. | ||
| But if you go grocery shopping, which I do, eggs are down now to 99 cents a dozen, $1.99 a dozen. | ||
| So the answer gets to be they used to be pushing $5 a dozen, anywhere from $4 to $5. | ||
|
unidentified
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Now, is beef down? | |
| No, but you don't change that in a year either. | ||
| I mean, all those cattle that were killed out west changes, so it's supply and demand. | ||
| If you don't like the price, don't buy it. | ||
|
unidentified
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It will come down. | |
| I mean, look at everything else in life. | ||
|
unidentified
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It doesn't change in a year. | |
| Everybody wants to point fingers saying, oh, we were doing a terrible job or something. | ||
| I think he's doing an unbelievably awesome job. | ||
| What do you think about his foreign policy moves? | ||
| Are you in support of what he's doing? | ||
| Both in Venezuela, now Greenland, perhaps, and all that kind of things. | ||
| I do believe the coarseness that he has is one of his detriments. | ||
|
unidentified
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But is it strategic? | |
| Without a doubt, I'm sure it is. | ||
| If you look at Greenland and itself, nobody wants to live there. | ||
| The habitat of Greenland itself is just horrendously terrible. | ||
| But the answer is, is it strategic? | ||
|
unidentified
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Sure. | |
| And he does that. | ||
| But I think it could have, or can be done, in a lot greater diplomacy. | ||
| I would have somebody else reached out and said, okay, we need it, and we need it. | ||
| And we need to make sure we lock it down. | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't think so. | |
| I don't think anybody has the tenacity that this man does. | ||
| But yes, diplomacy, he needs to, he has a lot of get up and go. | ||
| He's an A person by any means. | ||
|
unidentified
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So that's my opinion on at least Greenland. | |
| Venezuela, I don't have an opinion right now. | ||
| I have to think about that one. | ||
| But yeah, on Greenland, I think without a doubt, we're going to see there's plans and works. | ||
| If you want to look at how coarse people are or how the Oriental, and I'll just go out any, they are very ruthless. | ||
| And if somebody doesn't take and keep things in check, or at least keep aware of what's going on, which I think he's very aware of most everything going on in the world compared to other past presidents. | ||
| So I do believe that we need at least be proactive, and this is what this gentleman is. | ||
| That was Charles from Ohio. | ||
| Take a listen to Prime Minister of Britain Kier Stahmer on Monday, basically breaking with the President over his actions to pursue Greenland, kind of by any means possible. | ||
| But there is a principle here that cannot be set aside because it goes to the heart of how stable and trusted international cooperation works. | ||
| And so any decision about the future status of Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone. | ||
| That right is fundamental and we support it. | ||
| Denmark is a close ally of the United Kingdom and of the United States, a proud NATO member that has stood shoulder to shoulder with us, including at real human cost, in recent decades. | ||
| Alliances endure because they're built on respect and partnership, not pressure. | ||
| That is why I said the use of tariffs against allies is completely wrong. | ||
| It is not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance. | ||
| Nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland's security as a justification for economic pressure. | ||
| Such measures hurt British workers, British businesses, and the British economy. | ||
| And that is why I've been so clear on this issue. | ||
| A trade war is in no one's interest. | ||
| And my job is always to act in the UK's national interest. | ||
| That is why yesterday I spoke to President Trump, to European leaders, and to the Secretary General of NATO to find a solution rooted in partnership, facts, and mutual respect. | ||
| That was British Prime Minister Kier Stahmer talking about how he has advised the President to avoid a trade war after the President's threats to heighten tariffs over his pledge to acquire Greenland. | ||
|
Energy Prices Criticism
00:15:36
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||
| Now, of course, the President will be heading to Davos later on today where he will meet with European allies and, of course, talk about this issue. | ||
| William from Ohio, an independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
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Good morning. | |
| Hi. | ||
| It's been a terrible year, so I give him an F minus or even lower. | ||
| You know, Donald Jordan Johnson, he has a lot of problems. | ||
| He's got a Napoleon complex or a Hitler complex. | ||
| And his, I mean, the economy is terrible. | ||
| He don't know that. | ||
| I mean, he's got brown shirts all over the place beating up innocent people and killing people. | ||
| I want to cover up the Epstein files. | ||
| He's done a terrible job as president. | ||
| He's probably the worst president in history. | ||
| And, you know, Republicans, please remember what this man is doing and get rid of him. | ||
| Help us get rid of him. | ||
| We've all got to get together and take care of our country because it's a beautiful place and he's going to destroy it if we let him. | ||
| And we're not going to let him destroy it, are we? | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Anthony from Detroit, Michigan, an independent. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello. | ||
| I give Trump a very poor grade. | ||
| I mean, I didn't vote for him any of the three times, but just judging off of what he promised, which was the biggest thing in 2016, we liked how he people liked how he talked down to Jeb Bush and said, oh, the Bush family, you've got us in all these stupid wars that did nothing for us. | ||
| And he was running against military interventionism, and now he's being more militaristic and intervention is, you know, being very intervention-driven. | ||
| It's terrible. | ||
| And it's total betrayal of what he said. | ||
| And, you know, the Epstein files. | ||
| I'm not sure if Trump himself ever said he wanted to release the Epstein files, but you know, Kash Patel. | ||
| The president did eventually say that the Epstein files or that Congress's bill to trigger the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files should be released. | ||
| He did eventually say that, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
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But keep going. | |
| Well, he fought it all the way there. | ||
| So it's pretty much a betrayal. | ||
| And what about free speech? | ||
| That was a big part of his 2024 campaign, free speech. | ||
| But he's putting in these so-called anti-Semitism laws on campus, and he's cracking down on green card holders who equate criticism of the state of Israel with anti-Semitism. | ||
| And what is that? | ||
| That's hate speech laws for a protected class, totally against what he said he stood for. | ||
| That was Anthony from Detroit, Michigan. | ||
| Joe from Oregon, a Democrat. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I would have to give him an F minus. | |
| You know, there were some things that Admiral William McCraven said during Trump's first term in the Washington Post, where he talked about a real leader who brings the nation together. | ||
| You know, and I believe he really hoped that Trump would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needed. | ||
| Instead, he just continues in his first and second term to have embarrassed the country in the eyes of the world and our children, humiliated the U.S. on the world stage. | ||
| And, you know, probably worst of all, he just continues to divide us as a nation. | ||
| He is not a leader. | ||
| Stephanie from Englewood, California, an independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're next. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Stephanie. | ||
| I just would give him an F, and I just have a question to ask all of his supporters, the MAGA supporters, if you give me a chance, a few questions. | ||
| You know, when he was running before the 2024 election, you know, they talked about he never started any wars. | ||
| They talked about America. | ||
| He was America first, and it was all about America first. | ||
| They talked about, oh, they were going to release the Epstein files. | ||
| And none of that has happened. | ||
| He's done the exact opposite with all that. | ||
| And he's told them none of that matters anymore. | ||
| And they just say, okay, and go along with it. | ||
| And I just don't understand what it is that his supporters stand for because they claim to stand for one thing, but then once he tells them, oh, that's not important anymore, then they don't stand for that. | ||
| When they've stood for that and talked about that, and I just don't understand it. | ||
| I don't understand where we're going in this country where people say one thing one day, and then the next day he says, oh, that doesn't matter. | ||
| So now it's like, okay, we're not talking about that anymore. | ||
| It's over. | ||
| It doesn't matter. | ||
| What do they stand for? | ||
| Eileen from New Jersey, a Republican. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're next. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning, Eileen. | ||
| I just like to say it's a shame that you always every day with President Trump. | ||
| My grade for him is A plus. | ||
| And a lot of people should realize it. | ||
| You have news about the church that they broke into the protesters from Minnesota. | ||
| Why isn't that put on? | ||
| It's a shame. | ||
| Eileen, let me ask you, because this morning for this section, we have open forum later on today, but for this section, we're talking about how people are grading the president. | ||
| You said he gets an A-plus. | ||
| Can you talk about that grade? | ||
|
unidentified
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Because I think he's done wonderful things in a short month, and you know it. | |
| And I think that you fear that he is so popular and that you can't stop. | ||
| Well, what do you like that the president has done? | ||
| Are you talking about the economy, the foreign policy, all of the above? | ||
| I mean, let's go into your grade. | ||
|
unidentified
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The economy, and he has more time to work on it. | |
| I mean, prices have gone down. | ||
| And ShopRight, I'm a shopper. | ||
| And other people know it too. | ||
| But you don't want to give in to that because you can't give him any credit for anything. | ||
| And as far as Greenland goes, yes, I believe that we should. | ||
| We should use it and need it. | ||
| And he has reason, and I have reason. | ||
| And I think he's right. | ||
| But you don't know, none of you ever want to think he's right or anything he does is right. | ||
| That was Eileen from New Jersey. | ||
| John from Atlanta, Independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're not. | |
| Hey, good morning. | ||
| How are you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Oh, great. | ||
| Fabulous. | ||
| Well, I like to give him an elf. | ||
| And the ELF is for failure. | ||
| Let me say this to the American people. | ||
| All you need to do is go back to 1933 to 1945. | ||
| This guy is following the same playbook that Hitler and the Nazis are doing. | ||
| Don't take my word for it. | ||
| Do your research. | ||
| And the guy is nothing but an extortionist. | ||
| And every time this guy said, if you don't do this, you're going to lose this country. | ||
| This guy is giving America a bad name. | ||
| Wake up, people. | ||
| We are the people. | ||
| So in order for us to put checks and balances in place, we need to get rid of the Senate and we need to get rid of the Congress and put people in there that's going to do their job because obviously they're not doing their job. | ||
| And if. | ||
| Okay, you mean get rid of members in the Senate and Congress? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Exactly. | |
| Okay, I thought you were talking about the institutions for a second. | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, Forgive me for that. | |
| But yes, and that, and then to put term limits on the Supreme Court. | ||
| I think a lifetime, you know, with the six conservatives that we have, we don't need that. | ||
| I would say maybe about 12 terms should be enough. | ||
| But this guy is destroying this country. | ||
| And if you can't see that, you know, shame on you. | ||
| But go back and do your research because, you know, we've got a lot of documentaries out there. | ||
| And this is the same way that the Nazis and Hitler did it. | ||
| Mike from Florida, a Democrat, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hello, ma'am. | ||
| Thank you very much, Harry, taking my call. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Just something, you know, I watch different news channels, and I'm not biased. | ||
| I think some of the things he's doing are good. | ||
| But last night I was watching a college game, and they showed him on a teleprompter. | ||
| And I noticed that when we raise our kids, grandkids, we always put our hand over our heart. | ||
| They showed him on a teleprompter, and he did not have his hand over heart like a true American, like a patriot. | ||
| I just wonder, no one even caught that. | ||
| I just wondered if anyone thought of that or even what people's response would be to that. | ||
| Mike, since you're on the line here and you're a Democrat, can you talk to me about what you believe the president is doing well in his first year? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm very much so either way. | |
| I've always voted for the best person. | ||
| I'm just so much a Democrat, not an independent Republican. | ||
| And I think he's trying very well or trying to get gas prices down. | ||
| People don't talk about that. | ||
| That helps our economy very much, from the trucking to everything, even though the prices don't go down to the grocery chains and the marketing. | ||
| But, you know, that's one thing he's really trying to do. | ||
| Now, on the other side of all the other things he's trying to do, he's really trying to dictate or run, you know, take over people. | ||
| We are a good, good, you know, America. | ||
| I don't think we really need the things that are going on. | ||
| We've got to take care of ourselves and understand security, but we can go there, put our own boots on the ground and have our own defense there without taking over Silman's land. | ||
| Dan from Rochester, New York, an independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I feel that the president has done a pretty damn good job considering what he took over. | ||
| And the country was in chaos. | ||
| We had a previous president. | ||
| I don't need to get involved with everything that he did or didn't do, but he managed to make sure 13 people died in Afghanistan. | ||
| As far as the Epstein files go, I think it's a distraction. | ||
| So if there was so much information in the Epstein files, why didn't the Democrats during their four-year term bring the Epstein files out? | ||
| So to all the Democrats that keep bringing that up, I think that's a failed message. | ||
| Now, the other situation is the economy as far as energy. | ||
| I think he's doing everything he can to make sure that energy prices are coming down. | ||
| People complain about Venezuela, but yet there was a bounty on the Venezuelan president because he was a criminal. | ||
| He took him out. | ||
| We bought him in for justice. | ||
| He's done so many different things. | ||
| I can't even keep up with it. | ||
| I don't know how the guy does it. | ||
| I'm 75 years old, and he's older than I am. | ||
| And he's an energy, he's like an energy bunny. | ||
| He's like the Duracell energy bunny. | ||
| He does everything he can, I think, that justifies that he should get some credit for what he does. | ||
| That was Dan from Rochester, New York. | ||
| One thing that he mentioned in his comments were energy prices. | ||
| I turned to this Axios piece. | ||
| The headline is: Trump makes a political power play on data centers. | ||
| It says President Trump is trying to solve a political dilemma with his push for tech companies to fund new power plants. | ||
| The White House is all in on AI, but Republicans face blowback as utility bills rise. | ||
| Rising consumer electricity costs, which have no single cause, and the need for more power generation are both threats to the AI boom. | ||
| Officials are scrambling to enable quick build-out energy thirst AI data centers without sticking consumers with even higher bills, especially ones they'll remember at the ballot box. | ||
| Trump lieutenants and the governors of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and elsewhere Friday urged the nation's largest grid operator, PJM, to hold an auction for tech companies to bid on 15-year contracts for new power generation capacity. | ||
| So there is an article about the president trying to lower energy or electricity bills that folks are blaming on AI. | ||
| Daniel from Laurel, Maryland, a Republican. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Yes, I'm a Ronald Reagan, Republican, live in this great state of Maryland. | ||
| I've voted for Cindy Hoyer. | ||
| He usually gets about 85%. | ||
| And Barbara McCulskey. | ||
| She's pretty much right there with him. | ||
| She's also a Democrat, both of them. | ||
| Those Democrats are gone. | ||
| You'll never see them again. | ||
| The Democrat Party has reached so far left as they're unrecognizable. | ||
| As far as Donald Trump, I've voted for him three times in a row. | ||
| I'm very proud of it. | ||
| I don't consider myself MAGA because America's always been great to me. | ||
| And, you know, we've had our ups and downs, but we've always been able to get by everything. | ||
| We work things out together. | ||
| As far as Donald Trump, he's done everything right as far as I'm concerned. | ||
| He's President Biden, and I've always used that name because the President of the United States is, you know, you have to give honor to that seat. | ||
| And he dug us into a hole. | ||
| And we have to climb out of it together. | ||
| And hopefully we'll be able to. | ||
| But, you know, as Americans, I think we will. | ||
| But we have to work together to be able to do this, to solve our problems and our differences. | ||
| Really, I give him an A-plus. | ||
| I don't know what more he can do. | ||
| He's campaigned on everything. | ||
| 77 million people voted for him. | ||
| The election is over. | ||
| Just like President Barack Obama said to McCain, hey, buddy, the election's over with. | ||
|
F Minus, Minus Presidency
00:10:08
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| See, from Missouri, a Democrat, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Have you seen the documentary about Putin's turning of Trump when Putin was head of the KGB and there was a KGB official who defected here to help produce that? | ||
| I haven't. | ||
| But I wonder if you could transition into talking about what grade you would give the president his first year in office. | ||
|
unidentified
|
F minus, minus, minus. | |
| He's disgusting. | ||
| He needs to be removed. | ||
| Well, this country can still be saved. | ||
| Scott from New York, an independent, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, good morning. | |
| I get a little nervous because I do try to wait 30 days to call, and I know people with 2, 3, 6 telephones can call 2, 3, 6 times on different lines, but us through people 30 days. | ||
| Well, we're happy to hear from you this morning. | ||
| So, what grade would you give the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I would like to say, and I'm not being sarcastic, but I feel that President Trump came into this. | |
| He had a hatred for our country from the beginning, trying to rip our country apart. | ||
| I give him an A at that, that he is doing such a good job taking our standing away in the world, in America, and all of us humans out here are fighting amongst each other. | ||
| I mean, to see some woman get shot in the face three times by some guy who didn't have training, watch any police show on TV, you can tell that that guy had no training. | ||
| They pulled out a gun and shoot at the last resort. | ||
| That guy had a gun in his hand and a phone in his hand. | ||
| This country is going down the tubes, and I give him an A for being able to tear this God-loving Christian country apart and turn us into a bunch of heathens. | ||
| Rick from California, a Republican, you're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello. | |
| Hi, Rick. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
| How are you? | ||
| Good. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| So, what grade would you give the president, Rick? | ||
| I would give him an A. | ||
| I think he's doing everything that he promised he would do. | ||
| I know he's got a lot of static up there in Minnesota, but quite honestly, I don't believe in sanctuary city or state. | ||
| I think we're all one country. | ||
| And when it comes to Greenland, I think that, you know, after he goes on this trip and explains why we need it, quite honestly, I think I would make a deal with the Greenland people, make them all very rich, and take care of Denmark. | ||
| But I believe we do need that space. | ||
| So you think the president should move to, instead of trying to negotiate with the leaders of Denmark and Greenland, to then going directly to the people. | ||
| There's been some reporting that officials were considering making direct payments to the folks who live in Greenland. | ||
| You feel like that that route is where the president should go next? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think so, yes. | |
| How much would you be comfortable with him paying each member of Greenland? | ||
| I think there's 57,000 folks on the island of Greenland. | ||
| Yeah, as far as price-wise, what I would do, I would look at Alaska, you know, Louisiana purchase, all those kind of things, factor in the amount of territory we gained versus today's dollar and the dollars back then, and just make it straight across the board, | ||
| whatever that number is, pay that amount and move on. | ||
| Rick from California. | ||
| Karen from Maine, a Democrat, you're next. | ||
| What grade would you give the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would give the president a grade F. | |
| He should pack his bags up and get out of the White House and go somewhere else. | ||
| He's going to put us into another war. | ||
| He wants this and this. | ||
| He's acting just like a baby, not like a president. | ||
| And I wish he would just move out of the White House because he's ruining our lives. | ||
| Julius from New Jersey, an independent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Next. | |
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| What grade would you give the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
His first. | |
| So I would give him a D for demented, an F for failure, and absolutely an F for fascist. | ||
| I studied politics for 50 years. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have a background in that. | |
| I can tell you we've never seen anything like that in the U.S. | ||
| And anybody who thinks that it's okay for a president to militarily walk into a state and try to take it over is missing what happened in Kent State back in 1970. | ||
| And they will surely see the backlash from voters at the polls when November comes around again. | ||
| Julius from New Jersey. | ||
| Alex from South Carolina, a Republican. | ||
| You're next. | ||
| Good morning, Alex. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, C-SPAN, and thank you, C-SPAN Radio, TV, and Radio for educating the world. | |
| I give my President Trump a A plus, and I'm not going to go into a long story. | ||
| He gets an A plus for job, his promise that he kept when he signed a 20 million investment with Hyundai. | ||
| I give him a A plus for the Futures Act when he signed the $255 million annually funding for historically black colleges and universities. | ||
| Thank you, President Trump. | ||
| We needed that. | ||
| And for the border wall that was built and stopping illegal immigration, he gets an A plus for that. | ||
| Thank you, C-SPAN, once again. | ||
| President Trump, keep up the good work. | ||
| You got to vote. | ||
| I hope you stay in office forever. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Nancy from Redondo Beach, California, a Democrat. | ||
| You're next. | ||
| What grade would you give the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
F-minus. | |
| And, you know, it's very upsetting. | ||
| I wake up every day with a sense of doom. | ||
| Greenland, I don't know, it's about the precious minerals from what my understanding is. | ||
| And ICE and the killing of Miss Good, the mother who was killed, and they're calling him, you know, saying that he was hurt when he wasn't. | ||
| Someone called and said that he's like the energizer bunny. | ||
| I guess they haven't seen when he falls asleep in the middle of meetings on TV. | ||
| He's so division like I've never seen. | ||
| I'm 68. | ||
| And also, I think all of this is to divert from the Epstein files. | ||
| I think that is a real big deal. | ||
| He's panicking. | ||
| And I think that a lot of this is a division. | ||
| And Jack Smith is going to be speaking in a public hearing on the 22nd. | ||
| And I just pray, seriously pray, that Trump doesn't do anything to try to divert from that. | ||
| And thank you so much, C-SPAN. | ||
| Joel from Georgia, an independent, you're next. | ||
| What grade would you give the president, Joel? | ||
|
unidentified
|
How are you? | |
| Good morning, Joel. | ||
| I'm doing well. | ||
| How are you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Doing wonderfully. | |
| Real quick question. | ||
| Have you gotten any grades today other than A or F? | ||
| That's a great question. | ||
| I actually, I think we did get a D to answer that question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| There's a little bit of variation. | ||
| There's a little bit of variation, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would give the president of this administration so far a B. | |
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think one, that if you're going to call in, especially on the independent line, you need to stop with the hyperbolic nonsense and lofty language. | |
| Let's don't hijack independent lines and independent thought. | ||
| But, you know, we have to take the president as the person that he is. | ||
| His background in real estate and real estate development, everything, he's always going to oversell. | ||
| He's always going to talk in a very, you know, this is great and this is huge and this is the best and this is wonderful. | ||
| And I know that that wears on people's sensibilities, but we take it as it is. | ||
| Simultaneously, let's look at the positive things that have been done in the past 365 days, or well, 366 with last year being a leaf year. | ||
| You know, you've got the one big beautiful bill, the efforts on tax cuts for Medicare recipients, for Social Security recipients, for overtime pay for tips. | ||
| We've got child tax credit adjustments. | ||
|
Positive Trends Ignored
00:10:54
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|
unidentified
|
We've got decreased oil prices, which affects anything and everything that enters the transportation market. | |
| We've got so many positive things that are going on. | ||
| We've seen some real strong moves on the foreign stage to try and affect the world in a positive light where we're not interventionalist, but we're not isolationist either. | ||
| The bombing run in Iran back during the summer, the efforts that he's made to try and get NATO's defense spending increased, the efforts and things that he's done with different wars and conflicts on multiple continents, the successful removal of Maduro in Venezuela. | ||
| All of those things are positive maneuvers. | ||
| If we're going to call Maduro an international criminal, but we're not willing to take the effort and make the effort to remove him from power, then what's the point of the words that we use or the bounty that we place on him? | ||
| So, again, I hope that people can pull back from their personal dislikes and likes of Trump and give it a realistic evaluation. | ||
| He absolutely has his flaws. | ||
| I think that some of the vibrato and high-minded stuff about attacking Greenland, yes, I think that the United States does take care of all the North Atlantic, and we're supposed to be responsible for defending the gap between Greenland and Iceland and the gap between Iceland and the United Kingdom, but we don't have any ownership stake in Greenland. | ||
| So, yes, go back to the 1950s after World War II, where the United States previously made efforts to try and secure and purchase Greenland. | ||
| It makes sense that the United States would have a vested and concrete interest in the state of Greenland. | ||
| However, it does belong to Denmark. | ||
| We don't need to go ticking off allies and causing problems or issues with folks. | ||
| I mean, that's fine that we're going to disagree, but no, we don't need to make things into a bigger issue than what they actually are. | ||
| But Trump, he's going to throw crazy stuff out there just to see what sticks. | ||
| He's going to push issues. | ||
| So I wonder if I can ask, you gave him a B in the beginning of your comments. | ||
| What can the president do to get that grade to an A in your estimation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
To increase it to an A. | |
| I would like to see some more work actually with the Congress. | ||
| Some of the more recent things that we've heard about, particularly some kind of reach out or attempted meeting of the minds with Senator Warren on the credit card cap. | ||
| Credit card issues. | ||
| You know, trying to reach out to anybody on the other side of the aisle to address common problems. | ||
| Those are the things that if we want to truly heal some of the divide and some of the issues and some of the divisiveness that so many people talk about, it would be wonderful if we saw the president and we saw congressional leaders that are on every cable news channel, you know, giving sound bites every single day. | ||
| If the president was reaching out to Jamie Raskin or if he was reaching out to, you know, Jasmine Crockett or AOC or something, you know, hey, what is it that we can do that you're concerned about? | ||
| How can we find something that fits both of our agendas? | ||
| I understand that people have a huge problem with ICE and the way that things are being carried out. | ||
| But if you have violent criminals that are inside the United States, I don't know how people expect to have those violent criminals removed from the United States without doing targeted extractions and arrests. | ||
| So, you know, like I said, anything that we can do to work cohesively and collectively on problems, obviously Trump's always going to take a very strong lead and he's always going to, you know, his natural instinct is to do exactly what it is that he wants because, you know, he ran his own business. | ||
| He was the chairman and CEO. | ||
| He doesn't have to particularly answer to people, and he still feels that way, very much empowered as president. | ||
| But whatever that he can do to positively and productively work with other members of Congress to move things forward, I think would absolutely benefit our country as a whole and do a lot to try to find some more of that middle ground where the things that we do agree upon are worked on. | ||
| That was Joel from Georgia. | ||
| Jesse from Fort Worth, Texas, a Republican. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I was going to give my grade to Trump. | |
| I think he deserves an A, but I was going to give him an A because I'm kind of upset with him too because he's not really pushing the agenda like I thought he would, but he was talking about getting these other people that stole money from the government for the last four years, checked up all of our rents and gasoline stuff. | ||
| A few other people on the line also thought about him not arresting anybody. | ||
| Nobody's been arrested for any of that stuff. | ||
| And I mean, I don't see how anybody can complain about him because he hasn't done more than most presidents have done in a short time. | ||
| So, I mean, what else they expect from him? | ||
| Let me ask you, Jesse. | ||
| Sorry, let me ask you, Jesse, you said that you were upset with him because of gasoline prices. | ||
| Explain that to me. | ||
| Why are you upset? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm talking about the gasoline process because the people that caused all this stuff last four years is not making me pay for it. | |
| Well, like some of the corporations, you mean? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Insurance companies, I mean, I got screwed big time. | ||
| Insurers, gas, food, we all have, you know, but nobody's complaining about the Democrats. | ||
| They don't like Trump because Trump's keeping their bankroll for, you know, don't go any again. | ||
| I thought I'd figure out what's wrong with Democrats who don't like him. | ||
| But he's he's been lost up over the years, you know, before he became president. | ||
| It doesn't good, you know. | ||
| So, I mean, I I don't know. | ||
| I don't know why you wouldn't like him. | ||
| I already don't. | ||
| Like I said, I get a big people bill. | ||
| And I mean, you know, I don't know. | ||
| People people complain about it, I guess. | ||
| But you would give the president an A. Jesse, are you in the line still? | ||
| Rita from South Bend, Indiana, a Democrat. | ||
| You're next. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, Jasmine. | |
| Hi. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that the role of the President is just too complicated to give a general grade. | |
| I think he's done, he would earn high marks in some areas and low marks in some other ones. | ||
| So it's just, in my opinion. | ||
| And do you want to get into some of those places that you would give him both high and low marks, particularly as a Democrat? | ||
| I think both of those sides would be interesting to hear. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, sure. | |
| For the high marks, his attention to the, of course, the immigration problem, I think that that was something that was needed due to the high influx of immigration in the past decades, actually. | ||
| And as far as low marks, oh, going back to high marks, his attention to the disparities, the disparity of the tariffs, I don't know how that's going to, you know, work because it's just starting. | ||
| He just started that. | ||
| He's just been in for a year. | ||
| So I just, you know, I'm giving him time to see how that really affects the economy. | ||
| And as far as low marks, he's just not a uniter for the country. | ||
| We're so divided still. | ||
| I just think, especially with the Minnesota situation, I just, I do support, you know, I just wish that the officials in Minnesota would work together with Trump because that's just a hotbed situation there. | ||
| And I think that could have been quelled all of that that's going on there. | ||
| So just basically, I just feel that he has a missed opportunity of uniting the country. | ||
| So we're not so divided. | ||
| So that's pretty much my opinion. | ||
| But there's more stuff, but I just don't want to take up more of your time. | ||
| Well, thanks for calling in, Rita. | ||
| Millie from North Carolina, an independent. | ||
| You're next. | ||
| What grade would you give the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I give him an A. Price is cut grocery and gas has come down and that southern border is closed. | |
| We're not getting all illegal aliens that are bad. | ||
| So that's all he has to say. | ||
| Thanks for calling in. | ||
| Walter from Delaware, Republican. | ||
| What grade would you give the president, Walter? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I say a B. | |
| A B? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| Why do you say that? | ||
| When it comes to Greenland, you shouldn't take it over, but we should have a major military base there. | ||
| And all the foreigners should be put out of here quick. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And all these Democrats states want to keep them. | |
| They should be held responsible for them. | ||
| So I wonder what the president could do in your mind, Walter, to get that grade to an A. | ||
|
Cook on 2026 Midterms
00:01:41
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|
unidentified
|
I mean, it's what he's doing. | |
| It's so hard. | ||
| He's fighting the Democrats left and right. | ||
| And everybody's talking about the people he's kicking out here, but Obama kicked out more people than Trump has. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so did Clinton. | |
| I mean, how things are going? | ||
| If things are going to keep on playing around, there's going to be a civil war here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's coming. | |
| Minnesota, there, they should pull the ice out there and just send it a whole 80-second earth warning and just wipe it out. | ||
| Later this morning on Washington Journal, Cook Political Reports Jessica Taylor will join us to discuss the 2026 midterm elections and key Senate races to watch. | ||
| But next, after the break, we'll talk with Washington Times executive editor Bob Cusack about President Trump's first year in office, campaign 2026, and news of the day. | ||
| We'll be right back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
C-SPAN is as unbiased as you can get. | |
| You are so fair. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know how anybody can say otherwise. | |
| You guys do the most important work for everyone in this country. | ||
| I love C-SPAN because I get to hear all the voices. | ||