Day 101: Trump Cozies Up to Another Dictator
Trump and Duterte have a friendly chat ending with White House invite.
Donald Trump fondly spoke with Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte and invited him to the White House to discuss the importance of the the United States-Philippines pact, according to a White House statement.
Duterte has been accused of overseeing the mass murder of his people and extra-judicial executions over decades. Despite being democratically elected last year, Duterte has stated, “I am a dictator? Yes, it is true.”
(It’s worth remembering that prior conversations have seen Trump hang up on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last February and engage in hostility with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. Australia and Mexico are two of America’s staunchest allies militarily and economically.)
Meanwhile, Duterte has admitted to personally carrying out the killing of suspects:
“In Davao I used to do it personally. Just to show to the guys [police] that if I can do it why can’t you. And I’d go around in Davao with a motorcycle, with a big bike around, and I would just patrol the streets, looking for trouble also. I was really looking for a confrontation so I could kill."
The BBC reported Duterte’s open opposition to human rights and his suggestion that even lawyers merely defending drug suspects might be targeted by his police force.
Duterte’s war on drugs has led to the murder of thousands of suspects nationwide without any semblance of due process. Amnesty International has bluntly stated, “If you are poor, you are killed.”
According to Duterte, Trump approves Duterte’s methods.
“He was quite sensitive also to our worry about drugs. And he wishes me well … in my campaign and he said that … we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way.”
When that statement was made in December of last year, Duterte noted Trump had invited him to the White House in 2017.
With the White House’s most recent statement, it seems to confirm a lot of aspects about the Trump-Duterte relationship.
101 days in, 1361 to go
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