Democratic, Republican Strategists Review Trump’s First Year of 2nd Term

It's one year today since President Trump began his second term from national security to the economy. How's the commander in chief doing? Joining us to debate is Republican strategist Angie Wong and Democratic strategist Robin Biro. Good to have you both with us today, Angie, Robin. First up, we'll start with you, Angie. How would you grade the president so far and what's the most consequential action of this term that impacts that grade? The president's, well, his report card is looking pretty good. I mean, he's done a lot. I mean, we've been covering him for the past 12 months and I don't think I've had 20 minutes of sleep because every 20 minutes we've had breaking news. So I think closing the borders was his number one priority. He took care of that really quickly with Tom Holman and Kristi Noem. He's still working on getting a lot of the illegal criminals out of our country and that's not been pretty, but the job is getting done. So I'm giving him an A on that. He's also restoring justice with the DOJ. He's now going after a lot of the fraud that we're finding state to state. I think that is one of the most incredible things that I've seen because up until now, we've kind of let it go, even though we all known that there was a lot of cleanup there. And then, of course, we have the economy, we have doge, we have energy, we have tariffs. So, you know, and as a gift to all Americans today on his one year anniversary, being back on his second term, he is putting a cap on credit card interest at 10 percent. So I think he's been doing a great job on both the domestic and international fronts. It's almost too hard to choose one single focus here. There's been a lot happening in this first year. Robin, your take. Like my esteemed colleague here, I, too, have had had very little sleep this year. It's been a very consequential year on that. We can both agree. Overall, I would give him a C, which I think is fair, you know, speaking as a Democrat. But there's things that stand out for me. Yes, I agree with Angie, the border closures. We did have a problem, I admit that, on the Biden administration with open borders. So I would give him a B plus on that. There's a couple of things. The military, I think he's actually done really well with the military. I would give him an A on that. I really like the $1,776 bonus that he gave our military recently. Speaking as a veteran myself, I really like that. I think, though, what nobody's talking about in the media that is probably the most consequential is that you've seen a drastically different Donald Trump this term than at first in terms of his health. You're not seeing him loading up on burgers and KFC. You've seen him eating more healthy. You've seen him going to the doctor and having doctor's appointments. Speaking as a male, that has big ramifications because there are so many men who are stubborn about going to the doctor and taking care of their personal health. He set a good example with that, and on that, I want to applaud him. Where I think he's struggling is specifically with the economy. CPI, the consumer price index, did only rise by 2.7%, but heroes have hurt people in their wallets. That's leading to some expenses at home that are wonky. Home foreclosures right now are up by 19% from where they were a year ago. That's alarming to me. Car repossessions are up by 43%, which I'm surprised that nobody's talking about that. Credit card charge-offs are up by 52%. So if you read the tea leaves, there's starting to be some things alarming about the economy. I think tariffs are hurting people, are hurting in their wallets. So, you know, we'll give him a D plus on that. Okay. A nice detailed report there. Let's dig into some of the issues that you both raised. We'll start with national security, the border, as well as law enforcement more broadly within the country. Of course, crime was a big focus. Angie, your take on how he's doing with that so far? It's been a big focus quite recently. Yeah. It has been. It's been the big news story certainly of 2025 now. Still here with us in Minneapolis and other cities as well. So every time we see law enforcement go into the city to do their job, whether it's federal ICE agents or local PD, you see a lot of people impeding them. And we've been calling them protesters up until now, but really what they are are agitators because now they're starting to cross into churches and other places of worship. And I think that is where the line doesn't exist for them. And I think that you have to allow for both local PD and federal agents to do their job. I don't think there's any governor or local mayor who can really impede that. If they try and they bring it to the courts, they're going to fail. So arresting people, especially illegals, it was never going to be a pretty job. It was never going to look great. And certainly the media is putting focus on it. What I don't like are Democrats now changing the message and making it look like it's a protest or making it look like they're being wronged for, well, essentially law enforcement doing their work. And I think that it has to be a message that's changed because we have to help our law enforcement not impede them. Does that message change for your part, Robin? It does to a degree. Now if you look at the Homeland Security website right now, it will say that 47.3% of all apprehensions right now are violent criminals. I applaud that. I would say that they're skipping due process. That's something that, speaking as a former Obama campaign staffer, the Obama administration was able to deport. I mean, if you recall, he was labeled by people within my party as the deporter-in-chief. He got it done with due process. So the strongman tactic, I'm not a big fan of, but he's getting it done fast. That should be applauded. Apprehensions are way up, illegal border crossings are way down. I'm just telling you, I'm speaking to you from Atlanta, Georgia. My kids are going to school with students, though, who are legal immigrants who are afraid to go to school right now because they're of Hispanic descent and they're worried they're going to get picked up and, you know, things like that. I don't like that at all. But he's making some progress and we had to do something because the Biden administration really did have open borders. OK, let's look at, more broadly, the global economy. There's been so much happening with tariffs. You both brought up the cost of living and so the impacts internally, but also with the way the U.S. stands on the global stage, seeking to kind of re-engineer the global economy in some ways. And the impact so far, Angie, your part. Well, we're about to get a decision from the Supreme Court about his tariffs right now. So I think we're all kind of holding our breaths to see what happens there, because what he's done with the Trump tariffs is rattled the nerves around the world. Every single world leader sat up, either wanted to do a deal with the Trump administration or reject it like India has. So it's been a complete shakeup of geopolitics. And I've been defending the Trump administration around the world on multiple international channels because they just don't understand the man. Ultimately, we want what's best for America. We should. Right. We are Americans and we've been shooken up way too long by previous presidents that won't do a deal that is fair for Americans. I think that's what President Trump wants to get to. Now, again, all that could be reversed with the new SCOTUS decision that we are probably expecting. I thought it was coming down today, but it might be a couple of days. We'll see. But ultimately, our economy hasn't really adjusted to the one big, beautiful bill yet. That just kicked off in January. It still needs a lot of time to trickle down, maybe even a quarter or two in order for you and I to see the effects. But will that be enough time to feel the savings that we're going to get from that before the midterms? I'm not sure. I think that's what we're all waiting on. Yeah. And Robin, you mentioned the CPI. Of course, President Trump had always forecast that these tariffs are going to have the most benefit felt in the long run, perhaps some initial pain, but what do you see of the potential for that impact in the long run if, say, they're upheld amid the cost of living right now? Yeah, you bet. So I want to be fair on this. Big bills like this, take, for example, the Affordable Care Act. That was enormously unpopular when it first came out. It had about a 64% disapproval rating when Obamacare first became a thing, the law of the land. But as these big bills age and people get used to them and see that they do benefit, they become more popular. Right now, the Affordable Care Act enjoys about a 59% approval rating. That's a drastic difference from a 64% disapproval rating. So I think the same thing is going to happen with the big, beautiful bill, as we're calling it. It's a little unpopular right now, but we've got, as Andrew said, we've got to live with the growing pains and see how it adjusts. It will probably become more popular as it ages, maybe not in this term, but headed to the next, which would benefit Republicans, actually, for the 2028 election. Great. And we will, good to have both of your insights, and we will get more into that aspect of the election coming up. But just checking in now in terms of energy dominance, of course, that's key to Trump's overall agenda. For both of you, a brief word on where you think Trump stands on that so far. Angie. Yeah, briefly, I mean, energy is going to be the key ingredient going into the next several decades, right? We are currently in an arms race over energy with China, with Russia, and other countries. We need that. And that's one of the reasons why we need this Greenland deal. I know it's highly unpopular. I know Mike Johnson, our speaker, just went over to 10 Downing Street in the UK parliament to try to smooth things over, because I think he gets the messaging on this, whereas Trump is going to come in as the bad cop, trying to take over Greenland. That is going to be key for us. We need to secure our energy resources. Right now we're behind, and let's just be frank on that. We don't want to be behind China, and we certainly don't want to be behind Russia. Okay. And Robin, your response? The most consequential thing will be, of course, what's happening in Venezuela right now with the United States occupying Venezuela, which has the largest oil reserves right now in the world. That's going to be enormously consequential. I would also say, just being frank, there's really no such thing as clean, beautiful coal. But what we do need to be focusing on is the threat from China right now, because they are dominating when it comes to batteries, specifically for electric vehicles. We cannot compete as Americans right now with what BYD is producing with their electric vehicle batteries. The range far surpasses anything that we can do here in the United States. We have got to catch up, or we will be left in the dust. Okay. I want to look now at a very important topic, faith. The president has done a lot on this front, including carrying out strikes against terrorists that kill Christians. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said he'll work to ensure that the Senate passes bills to end forced organ harvesting in China, which is a black market industry that's targeted adherence of the persecuted spiritual group Falun Gong. How has Trump done in advocating for religious liberty, protecting that freedom? Angie. Yeah, I've seen an uptick in churchgoers, especially with young men in the last year or two. I think a lot of that has to do with the Trump effect. He's made going to church incredible again, great again. I think we're starting to see a lot more faith-based, everything from sports to television shows to anything you touch in America, because it's now okay to be faith-based and be outward about it. I think in the previous years, there were a little bit of hesitancy to show that. I think Trump, being a man of faith, has really allowed people to really embrace that and make it great again. So I just thank him for that. I just watched the Miami, Indiana team yesterday, the college football, and both players, they were praying to God. I mean, they were God-loving champions. So I think all these things are great to see, especially for young people who kind of got lost in that avenue for a long, long time. It's really nice to see that coming back to America. Robin? The most consequential thing in terms of faith was the assassination of Charlie Kirk, because now there are chapters of Turning Point USA pretty much in every high school across the country. I know at least in the South, here in the Bible Belt, they're in every single high school here in the South now. I am an elder of my church. My kids are both junior deacons. I've definitely seen an uptick of church attendance. But the assassination of Charlie Kirk had a profound impact on the nation's psyche in terms of believers. And also, I want to talk about, we've seen some uptick of anti-Semitism, but at least it's being brought out. We know who the anti-Semites are. We're condemning it across party aisles. That is something that I'm grateful to see. I'm grateful to see more politicians condemning that across party aisles. There's no place for that. This is America. We have freedom of religion and freedom from religion here. And just as we approach the end of this debate and discussion, as strategists, from your perspective, what's one key thought that you'd like to leave the audience with in terms of the upcoming midterm elections? Well, I would like to say that President Trump has done so much in the last 12 months, and he's going to keep going. We want to make sure that he has a full four-year presidency. So we need to make sure that we keep both houses and the Senate as well, and also the governor's seat. We need the whole machine to work in order for the America First agenda to really go all the way, because he's only at the one-year mark. Could you imagine if we give him a full three more years? This is going to be incredible. So we need to vote with our conscience and get Republicans in office come November. Robin? We need Democrats to actually step up to the plate right now. They're content to sit on their hands. The general thought is to let Republicans run riot, and maybe Americans will get sick of it, and the Democrats will take charge. That's not going to work. We're going to need democratic action on things that matter and make a difference in the lives of Americans. Also, I want to say that the worst thing that could possibly happen would be another impeachment of Donald Trump, but they're wildly unpopular and ineffective. I would not want to see that. Let's just give people some relief where it counts in their wallets. Great to hear both of your thoughts today. So many insights. Angie Wong, Robin Biro, thank you both so much. Thank you.