Trump’s Agenda This Week: Supporting Autocracy, Corruption, and Deportations
Just another day in the Oval Office. Plus, PM May stays on as Tory leader, and the Strasbourg attack perpetrator is killed.
1. The Senate issued a rebuke to President Trump’s blind loyalty to Saudi Arabia, approving a resolution to recommend the U.S. end their assistance to the Saudi-led war in Yemen. They also blamed Mohammed bin Salman for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. For more on this story, read our updated analysis here.
2. There are a bunch of updates on the ever-expanding investigations into Trump’s corruption. Here’s a quick overview:
https://twitter.com/RanttMedia/status/1073346062075785216?s=20
3. British Prime Minister has survived a vote of no confidence for her party’s leadership. She received 63% of her party’s support, granting her a year free from challenges. It will likely be a minor reprieve for a prime minister who has lost the support of her coalition partners over her Brexit deal and has already said she will not lead her party in the next elections, making her sort of a lame duck leader. Mrs. May now heads to an EU summit, where she will hope for concessions to make the Brexit deal pass in Parliament. There is not much of chance she will get them.
4. Police have shot dead the man identified as the perpetrator of an attack on the Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg. 29-year-old Cherif Chekatt was a criminal with 27 convictions in three different countries, who became a radical Islamist in jail. On Tuesday, the gunman shot dead 3 people and injured several others.
Often after such tragedies, anger is unjustifiably aimed at Muslim communities. The Islamophobia works to the benefit of terrorist groups and their recruiting efforts, as well as to the right wing outfits who fan the xenophobic flames. Both parties seek the same goal: to instill fear and division.
Terrorist attacks, while horrific, are not as common as headlines would suggest. One is more likely to die from an animal attack than a terrorist attack, for example. As the world mourns these recent deaths, the best way to prevent future ones is to not let grief turn into hatred.
5. The Trump administration has refocused its efforts on mass deportations of immigrants, this time setting its sights on Vietnamese communities, many of whom fled the horrors of the Vietnam War decades ago. The White House is looking to rip up a 10-year-old agreement that prevented deportations of Vietnamese who came to the US before the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. The Trump administration insists this is needed to deport those who have committed crimes, but like many of their other actions, it leaves refugees and undocumented migrants vulnerable to ICE raids. Under Trump, even migrants who have long established their place in the US are not safe.
