The Fox News commentator delivered a verdict on the Trump administration’s first two years in an interview with Die Weltwoche – and he’s not pleased

In what is shaping up to be one of the lowest weeks of his presidency with the departure of the chief of staff, John Kelly, reportedly imminent, a week-long funeral for George HW Bush that put his leadership style into stark contrast with his predecessors, and the findings on Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort from special counsel Robert Mueller set to drop, Donald Trump may have just suffered the type of blow he can least afford: someone on Fox News has called him lazy and stupid.

Well, in so many words, that is.

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It’s an extreme rarity to hear a harsh word for the president from anyone on Fox News. But ever the savvy operator, and perhaps sensing the impending political winds of discontent, Fox News’ chief anti-immigration and white nationalism commentator, Tucker Carlson, has delivered a verdict on the first two years of the administration – and he’s not pleased.

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Speaking with Die Weltwoche, Switzerland’s leading German-language weekly, Carlson catalogued a list of grievances and failures regarding Trump’s ability and desire to deliver on anything he pledged during his campaign.

“His chief promises were that he would build the wall, defund Planned Parenthood and repeal Obamacare, and he hasn’t done any of those things,” Carlson said.

“I’ve come to believe that Trump’s role is not as a conventional president who promises to get certain things achieved to the Congress and then does.”

Not only has Trump failed to come through, Carlson said, he might not even be able to, both due to his own shortcomings and his inability to muster legislators to follow his lead.

“I don’t think he’s capable,” Carlson went on.

“I don’t think he’s capable of sustained focus. I don’t think he understands the system. I don’t think the Congress is on his side. I don’t think his own agencies support him.”

While Trump has asked some questions that he thinks needed to be asked, such as: “Why don’t our borders work?” and “What’s the point of Nato?” Carlson said he has done nothing to follow through on them once they have been posed.

Why not? Because legislating is too complex for Trump to grasp.

In order to pass legislation, “you really have to understand how it works and you have to be very focused on getting it done, and he knows very little about the legislative process, hasn’t learned anything, and surrounded himself with people that can get it done, hasn’t done all the things you need to do so. It’s mostly his fault that he hasn’t achieved those things,” he said.

“I’m not in charge of Trump,” Carlson added, although considering the outsized role Fox News plays in setting Trump’s daily agenda that may be up for debate. Following a misleading segment on Carlson’s show in August the president tweeted about the so-called land seizures from white farmers in South Africa the next day, to name one example among many.

Carlson has made the odd critical remark about the president in the past, but by and large when he thought Trump wasn’t going far enough to the right. These comments are different in that they take the administration’s failures on the whole into account. It’s great to have an effective attack dog on your side – the only problem is when they turn against you they’re already inside the house.