What to Watch: Trump Gives His Presidency an ‘A’ So Far

The State of the Union is … not
happening this year, technically. But
in a prime-time address on Tuesday to
a joint session of Congress, President
Trump is expected to deliver the
equivalent: a speech intended to set
the course for his near-term policy
agenda and mollify concerns on
Capitol Hill after his uneven first
month.
■ Mr. Trump’s address is scheduled to
begin shortly after 9 p.m. The New
York Times will be providing live
coverage.
■ The president tries to set the tone in
an early morning interview on “Fox
and Friends.” He gives himself a grade
of A so far.
■ Steven L. Beshear, the former
governor of Kentucky, will deliver the
Democratic response, including a
strong defense of the Affordable Care
Act.
Here is what to keep an eye on:
Trump: ‘I think I’ve done great things’
Mr. Trump gave himself a grade of A
for his presidency so far in an
interview broadcast Tuesday morning,
but he added that he would only give
himself a C for communicating how
great he has been.
Appearing on “Fox and Friends,”
which he has called one of his favorite
shows, Mr. Trump blamed former
President Barack Obama for
organizing opposition against him,
called the House Democratic leader
Nancy Pelosi “incompetent” and
gently criticized his own press
secretary for how he has handled
leaks.
The interview, shown just hours
before Mr. Trump delivers his first
address to a joint session of Congress,
set the stage for a day when he will
have perhaps the biggest audience
available to him for the rest of his first
year in office. He highlighted his plans
to increase military spending, tighten
borders and replace Mr. Obama’s
health care program, and he boasted
that he has already brought back jobs
to America.
“I think I’ve done great things, but I
don’t think I have — I and my people
— I don’t think we’ve explained it well
enough to the American public,” he
said. “I think I get an A in terms of
what I’ve actually done, but in terms
of messaging, I’d give myself a C or a
C-plus.”
He acknowledged that he does not
have the support of a majority of
Americans in polls, but he said those
who do back him are more intense.
“The love is great,” he said. “And I
saw a poll where I was at 45 or 46
percent, but one of the things they
said is that the level of enthusiasm for
me is as strong as they’ve ever seen.”
Mr. Trump rejected criticism by Ms.
Pelosi, who said that for all the sound
and fury, the president has not
actually accomplished much in his
first month in office. “I’ve been
watching Nancy’s tape and so I think
she’s incompetent, actually,” Mr.
Trump said.
Asked by the Fox hosts if he thinks Mr.
Obama is responsible for some of the
protests against his policies, Mr.
Trump agreed but brushed it off. “I
think he is behind it,” he said. “I also
think it’s politics,” adding, “And look,
I have a very thick skin.”
Mr. Trump, who has railed against
leaks, said some of them have
probably come from holdovers from
Mr. Obama’s administration. But he
said his press secretary, Sean Spicer,
was wrong to bring a group of staff
members into his office and inspect
their telephones in the presence of
White House lawyers.
“Sean Spicer is a fine human being;
he’s a fine person,” Mr. Trump said.
“I would have done it differently. I
would have gone one-on-one with
different people.” He added: “I would
have handled it differently than Sean.
But Sean handles it his way, and I’m
O.K. with it.”
Calming congressional nerves
It is a complicated time to be a
Republican in Congress. Long-
promised plans to dismantle the
Affordable Care Act have hit
roadblocks , despite the party’s control
of the White House and both
congressional chambers. Town hall-
style events back home have drawn
simmering fury from voters displeased
with the administration’s early
direction.
Now, lawmakers are looking to the
speech as a moment for Mr. Trump to
steady himself, and his allies, as they
prepare to slog through a period of
turning rhetoric into legislation.
Tax overhaul? The border wall?
Repealing the health care law ? It is
unlikely that the president will offer
all the specifics that some members
are seeking. But the administration’s
broad budget outline this week did
offer a preview: He is calling for
sharp increases in military spending
and drastic cuts to domestic agencies.
Cheerleader in chief? Maybe not this
time
The annual congressional address
tends to be a staid affair, shuttling
assembled dignitaries through the
classics: standing, sitting, partisan
clapping and, always, an extended
ovation after the president holds forth
on America’s general excellence. (Mr.
Trump’s speech, like other presidents’
initial addresses to Congress in recent
decades, is not considered a formal
State of the Union.)
But Mr. Trump, as ever, may present
wrinkles. As a candidate and as
president, he has depicted America as
being infested with crime and as a
“mess” that needs cleaning. History
might well remember his inaugural
address as the “American carnage”
speech.
In a setting that typically compels
presidents to extol the nation’s
greatness, Mr. Trump could take a
different tone on Tuesday. Or perhaps
he will claim that, several weeks on,
America has already been made great
again.
On crime and punishment
Based on the preview that his attorney
general, Jeff Sessions, gave reporters
on Monday, Mr. Trump is expected to
hark back to his “law and order”
theme by promising more aggressive
federal policing of gun crimes, drugs
and other areas in response to a rise
in violent crime in some big cities.
Crime is near historic lows nationwide
and remains far below levels seen in
the 1970s and 1980s.
But Mr. Sessions, a former senator
and prosecutor who was an important
campaign adviser to Mr. Trump, told
reporters he was worried that the
increase in violence in some major
cities, like Chicago and Baltimore, was
“not a blip” and could signal “a
longer-term trend.” Mr. Sessions is
giving a speech of his own on that
topic Tuesday morning to the National
Association of Attorneys General in
Washington.
Mr. Sessions said he wanted to let
local police officers know “that they’re
being supported” in Washington, and
he suggested that morale was lagging
in some departments because of a lack
of federal leadership.
The Democratic response
Muslims. Immigrants. A recent
detainee.
Officially, the Democratic rebuttal to
Mr. Trump’s speech will come from
Mr. Beshear, the former governor of
Kentucky, who will defend the
Affordable Care Act.
But inside the House chamber where
Mr. Trump is speaking, Democrats
plan to assemble a cadre of human
symbols, bringing as guests several
people imperiled by the president’s
policies. Eschewing wide-scale
boycotts of the speech — a feature of
Mr. Trump’s inaugural address —
members of Congress have used their
invitations as another form of protest.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of
Massachusetts is bringing an Iraqi
refugee who settled in the state in
2010 and is now an American citizen.
Representative Nydia M. Velázquez of
New York invited Hameed Khalid
Darweesh, who worked as a translator
for American forces in Iraq and was
detained last month at Kennedy
International Airport under the
Trump administration’s travel ban.
Other guests include undocumented
immigrants who were protected from
deportation under Mr. Obama, an
Iranian graduate student and the
founder of the Syrian Community
Network.
A bridge to comity? Perhaps not
Mr. Trump’s campaign caused
bipartisan headaches, pitting him
against establishment forces in both
parties. But so far, with his cabinet
choices and executive orders, there
have been few complaints from the
right.
If Mr. Trump retains any interest in
reaching out to Democrats — and if
they remain a willing audience, an
open question given the hostility
toward the president from the
progressive base — the speech would
appear to supply an opportunity.
Some Democrats say they are still
interested in working with the
president on an infrastructure plan,
though it is far from clear what such a
proposal might look like.
In a “prebuttal” on Monday, Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, the
minority leader, suggested he was
unlikely to be impressed. “Tomorrow
night, if past is prologue, the president
will use populist rhetoric in his
speech,” Mr. Schumer said, “but he
won’t back it up with real actions.”