When his chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in an interview published this week that he had an “alcoholic’s personality,” President Donald Trump didn’t blink but agreed that he pushes the boundaries often.
This week proved that right. From his crude reaction to the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, to the sensational announcement of drug price cuts, to Friday’s retaliatory hit on the Islamic State, to the narcissistic renaming of the Kennedy Center, America got the full Trump.
It’s what many voted for last year — and what many others warned about.
TRUMP SLOWS BLEEDING OF INDEPENDENT VOTERS: WHITE HOUSE REPORT CARD
Trump blames Rob Reiner’s murder on his Trump Derangement Syndrome. pic.twitter.com/LHLUOB76uy
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) December 15, 2025
Pollster Brent Buchanan told us that Trump’s no apologies style was what helped him beat former Vice President Kamala Harris last year. His ability to reach non-partisan voters who felt left behind and ignored with his “alcoholic’s personality” did her in.
“Trump’s victory came from his ability to connect emotionally with these low-partisan voters — speaking to their frustrations, their sense of being left behind, their distrust of institutions,” said Buchanan, the founder of Cygnal polling.
Our weekly White House Report Card graders echoed what America felt about the president’s week.
Conservative analyst Jed Babbin graded the week a “B,” and concluded, “All in all, a very good week punctuated by some miserable events.” Democratic pollster John Zogby joked about being in the prone position and dished an “F,” pointing to the president’s statement on Truth Social about the Reiner slaying and the new Kennedy Center name of “The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.”
TRUMP WARNS OF JANUARY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN OVER OBAMACARE DURING NORTH CAROLINA SPEECH
Jed Babbin
Grade: B
This was a pretty wild week for President Donald Trump and his crew, with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in a revealing Vanity Fair interview, blocking oil tankers to Venezuela, raiding an Iran-bound freighter, and vague security guarantees for Ukraine. And a lot more.
Wiles should have expected a display of Trump Derangement Syndrome from VF, and that’s what she got. Her quotes that Trump has an “alcoholic’s personality,” Vice President JD Vance is a “conspiracy theorist,” and Elon Musk is a drug abuser were startling and newsworthy. She should never have agreed to the series of 11 interviews. It was a rookie error.
Trump’s quarantine — not a blockade — of sanctioned oil tankers going to Venezuela may be a good thing. It might force out Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro eventually but so far he hasn’t budged. It’ll take more to get him out. Trump is thinking about an invasion, but risking U.S. lives in such a venture isn’t worthwhile. It was very strange that Trump made no mention of Venezuela in his prime-time speech on Wednesday night.
Three Americans — two soldiers from the Iowa National Guard and a translator — were killed in Syria by a member of the Syrian security forces. The U.S. struck back Friday with a massive hit on the Islamic State. Why do we still have troops in Syria anyhow?
The raid on an Iran-bound ship from China (probably by Navy SEALs) seized military equipment, according to several news sources. The Iranians squawked but the Chinese didn’t. It was a good op.
The U.S. guarantees of Ukrainian security are entirely vague and may not amount to much. Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t buy them anyway, and peace for Ukraine seems very far off. Peace in the Gaza Strip seems equally distant, with Hamas refusing to disarm. For all of Trump’s peace-making successes, these two conflicts seem beyond him. And other peace ventures seem to be very fragile.
Inflation was down to 2.7%. Unemployment was up a bit, but it wasn’t significant. All in all, a very good week punctuated by some miserable events.
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John Zogby
Grade: F
Just too much going this week, so let’s start with the obvious. President Donald Trump’s grade is an “F.”
We begin with his reprehensible, inhuman, narcissistic whine in his comments about the horrible tragedy that befell Rob Reiner, his wife, and his family.
Second, Trump shifted his narcissism all the way over to the other end of the spectrum by welcoming his hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center to rename it the “Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.” These honors are normally bestowed after someone leaves office or passes from the scene. By allowing this to happen, it is clear that Trump is collecting his honors upfront. Maybe he doesn’t think he will be in office much longer? Pure speculation on my part. It doesn’t affect his grade at all.
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But perhaps the strangest thing that happened this week was the Vanity Fair interview with chief of staff Susie Wiles. It is not entirely what she said — as in referring to the president’s “alcoholic’s personality,” the vice president as a conspiracist, and Deputy Chief Stephen Miller as a zealot — or how she said it, but why she said it. Wiles is no naive country girl easily manipulated by a reporter. Was she looking for a big book deal? Is she preparing an imminent departure for either herself or Trump? Or was she merely asserting earlier than most that his whole thing is not her fault. I am not usually prone to conspiracy theories (though at times watching this administration, I find myself in a prone position), but, wow, this is all just so weird.
Inflation is either going down or going up. The public chooses up. Unemployment is going up, although the entire process of collecting data is simply a mess.
But this week, it was all about Rob Reiner and his family and a Trump response that was just wrong.
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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 is Beyond the Horse Race: How to Read Polls and Why We Should. His podcast with son and managing partner and pollster Jeremy Zogby can be heard here. Follow him on X @ZogbyStrategies.
