Trump Admires Tyrants

Click here for an article in The Washington Post by Erin Cunningham, entitled "Middle East rights activists, dismayed by Obama, fear Trump will be much worse."

Trump's admiration for Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin is well known. He has praised the "strength" of Kim Jong Un in North Korea. He has expressed his approval of the "strength" demonstrated by the Deng Xiaoping regime in crushing the pro-democracy student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But his support for the oppressive Middle East regimes of Abdel Fatah al-Sissi in Europe and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey is causing consternation in the region.

The Obama administration — which sold arms to despots in the region even as they cracked down on opponents — has disappointed many rights advocates. But President Obama has also pressed Middle East governments to curb abuses and enact democratic change.

Trump, by contrast, has not only lauded some of the region’s strongmen but also called for torturing terrorism suspects and killing the families of Islamic State fighters as a way to defeat the extremist group. His rhetoric has alarmed local human rights defenders who say their situation is tenuous enough already.

Gamal Eid, executive director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information in Cairo, is unhappy with the way things have developed in the Middle East under Obama, but says: "But now that Trump has been elected, Eid said, 'what is coming is worse.'" He says al-Sissi's regime in Egypt, "... which came to power in a military coup in 2013, has jailed political opponents, launched a campaign of mass arrests and stifled protests." He says: "But Trump, after meeting Sissi in September, hailed the Egyptian leader as a “fantastic guy” in an interview with the Fox Business Network." Others, too, have been critical of Obama's handling of the Middle East situation, "But activists say that while the administration’s support for human rights ebbed, they could still engage with U.S. diplomats and raise their concerns."

With Trump, they worry there will not even be a dialogue.

His comments on the Middle East have included pledging to destroy the Islamic State and rip up the nuclear deal with Iran. There is no indication he recognizes the work of local rights activists.

The article says:

In a poll conducted in nine Arab countries, just 14 percent of respondents said they thought Trump would have a positive impact on U.S. policy in the region. The survey was published by the Arab Center Washington D.C., a nonprofit group, on Nov. 1.

And further:

With Trump in the White House, the United States “will be less concerned about human rights, less concerned about democracy, less concerned about ­civil society and other things,” said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a Turkish human rights lawyer. “And this is a huge loss.”

I think it's fair to say that Trump's election has caused consternation and dismay in countries around the world.