December 29, 2025 09:46 AM UTC

Jeff Crank Fails To Give Dear Leader Trump A Perfect Grade

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

As we prepare to put the politically exceptional year of 2025 in the history books, KOAA-TV Colorado Springs’ politics broporter Brett Forrest caught up with freshman Rep. Jeff Crank to review the first chaotic year of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House, the effects of legislation Crank had a hand in passing in 2025 like the “We’re All Going To Die Act” federal budget, and an overall assessment of both Trump’s and Crank’s own performance from the point of view of Crank’s relatively safe Republican seat.

As you might have expected, Rep. Crank is very, very pleased with himself:

Republican Congressman Jeff Crank, who represents most of El Paso County, was asked what grade he’d give himself as he wrapped up 2025, which was his first year in Washington.

“Well, I mean, I think an A. I think we’ve had a great Congress. We’ve done a tremendous amount of work,” said Rep. Crank. “I’ve sponsored over 75 bills. I’ve cast over 300 votes in the House in this last year.”

After shooting the curve by giving himself an “A” grade and the rest of Congress for unspecified reasons a mere “B,” Crank explains how that grade came despite failure on one of Crank’s most important stated priorities, keeping the U.S. Space Command headquarters in Colorado Springs:

Notably, Congressman Crank said he doesn’t consider the loss of Space Command to be a failure in his first year. Keeping the headquarters in Colorado Springs was a big campaign promise, but ultimately, President Trump announced in September it would move to Alabama…

Rep. Crank said they’d done everything they could on Space Command, seemingly suggesting there isn’t much fight left to keep it in Colorado.

“I know that there are people who want to turn it into a political issue and grind against the administration,” said Crank. “I’m not willing to do that because for the next three years, this administration is going to decide where things go.”

After initially joining with Democrats to denounce Trump’s politically-motivated decision to uproot Space Command and move those jobs and investments to Alabama, Crank quietly knuckled under with the rest of the Republican delegation, and as readers know local conservative governments are asking Democrats in Denver to drop their lawsuits against the administration.

Which appears to be the real problem for Crank as well: not Trump’s brazen corruption, but Democratic attempts to resist it.

Crank also took a jab at the state’s Democrat leaders, like Attorney General Phil Wesier and Governor Jared Polis, who have often been at odds with the Trump Administration, especially through multi-state lawsuits.

“It’s not been helpful. It’s been challenging, in fact, when we have a governor and an attorney general that continue to try and want to fight and poke the administration and not work with them,” he said. “Whether it’s on immigration or many other things. So, that’s been a frustration, but I think overall we’ve done the best we can with the hand that we’ve been dealt (when it comes to keeping Space Command).”

Crank sidesteps the fact that Colorado’s lawsuits have been successful in an overwhelming majority of cases, meaning those lawsuits have merit. In short, Crank is arguing that our state should submit to illegal actions taken by the administration in order to receive better treatment. In doing so, Crank is morally capitulating to Trump’s corrupt transactional leadership style. This is more notable in Crank’s case than other Republicans because he used to be a harsh critic of Trump over exactly this kind of corrupt behavior. But that resolve has long faded.

Or has it?

When asked how he’d grade the president, Rep. Crank, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, gave him a “B” as well. It’s by no standard a bad grade, but it’s somewhat unusual to see Republicans not heap full praise on the party’s leader. [Pols emphasis]

“Well, overall, I mean, you know, probably the same [as Congress]. I’d probably give [Trump] a ‘B.’ I think we have work to do, and we have to work together as a team to get that done,” said Crank.

In the 2024 Republican primary for Crank’s CO-05 seat, Trump endorsed Crank’s opponent Dave Williams, and trashed Crank as an agent of “Americans for Chinese Prosperity.” Crank shamelessly sucked up to Trump after defeating Williams despite his prior criticisms, and has generally fallen in line as a loyal MAGA hatter since heading to Washington.

But if there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he does not accept grades below “A.” Usually with multiple plus signs.

What will Donald Trump say when he learns that Nikki Haley’s protege in Colorado offered less than perfect praise for Trump’s first year back in office?

Some early morning soon, we may all find out together on Truth Social.