--- title: Donald Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far description: President Trump said he'd give himself an "A-plus" for effort on his presidency so far. canonical: https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-28T15:54:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:34:38.004Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far og:description: But a C for messaging. og:url: https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31c6671bc8755ed8/6988bc557cdbac37b2d574d9/gettyimages-645959708.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far twitter:description: But a C for messaging. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31c6671bc8755ed8/6988bc557cdbac37b2d574d9/gettyimages-645959708.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=06b1ae23-3e9a-4318-94ea-9af755fe13e8&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 28, 2017 3:54 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. Pool—Getty Images by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Feb 28, 2017 3:54 PM UTC President Trump said he’d give himself an “A-plus” for effort on his presidency so far. In [an interview with _Fox & Friends_](http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-and-friends/) Tuesday morning, Trump was asked what grade he would give himself based on his Administration so far. “I think in terms of effort, which means something, but I give myself an A-plus, OK, effort, but results are more important,” he said. “In terms of messaging, I would give myself a C or a C-plus. … In terms of achievement, I think I’d give myself an A because I think I’ve done great things, but I and my people I don’t think we’ve explained it well enough to the American public.” The interview came as Trump is looking to[ reset his agenda with the American people](http://time.com/4685184/donald-trump-state-union-joint-address-reset/) during [his first address](http://time.com/4684397/donald-trump-congress-address-watch-online/) to a joint session of Congress. Trump’s comments were fairly typical for presidents who hit a rough patch. In [an interview in November](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/obama-blames-messaging-bad-luck-our-system/article/2607894), former President Obama blamed Hillary Clinton’s loss on poor messaging. “Democrat do have to do some thinking about how do we make sure that the message we have is received effectively,” he said. > [](https://twitter.com/foxandfriends/status/836548467803619329) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/"},"headline":"President Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far","datePublished":"2017-02-28T15:54:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:34:38.004Z","description":"But a C for messaging","url":"https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/","keywords":["Donald Trump","White House"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31c6671bc8755ed8/6988bc557cdbac37b2d574d9/gettyimages-645959708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt31c6671bc8755ed8/6988bc557cdbac37b2d574d9/gettyimages-645959708.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC.","caption":"U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the National Governors Association meeting in the State Dining Room of the White House February 27, 2017 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Pool—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4685568/donald-trump-grade-presidency-effort-messaging/","name":"President Trump Gives Himself an A-Plus for Effort So Far"}}]}] ```