Tag: Trump authoritarianism

Fuming Trump Has Told Advisers He Wants Jeff Sessions to Have Omarosa Arrested: Report

The following article by Elizabeth Pena was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 16, 2018:

Fuming Trump Has Told Advisers He Wants Jeff Sessions to Have Omarosa Arrested: Report

Credit: AP Photo, Steve Helber

Donald Trump has told advisers he wants his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to have his former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman arrested, Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman reports.

According to Sherman, despite receiving advice from aides and his wife Melania Trump to “just ignore” Manigault Newman’s book tour, Trump has opted instead to attack and insult his former “Apprentice” co-star and confidante.

Though it’s unclear which law the president believes Manigault Newman broke, a former West Wing official told Sherman that Trump’s reaction is likely rooted in what he sees as “a personal betrayal.”

View the complete article here.

Trump’s Revoking of Security Clearances

Pres. Trump speaks during a rally in Ohio. Credit: John Minchillo AP

Donald Trump revoked the security clearance of a private citizen and long-standing public servant, John Brennan, because he holds Brennan responsible for the special counsel’s investigation into his campaign’s relationship with Russia.  We know this because Trump told the Wall Street Journal last night that revoking Brennan’s clearance “had to be done,” because Brennan was one of the officials who “led” the “rigged witch hunt.”

This contradicts the White House claim that Trump’s decision was “not politically motivated” and was because Brennan posed a “security risk.”

Continue reading “Trump’s Revoking of Security Clearances”

Trump is creating his American caliphate, and democracy has no defence

The following commentary by Nesrine Malik was posted on the Guardian website June 18, 2018:

Officials quoting a holy text to justify repressive policies is something we who grew up in the Arab world have seen before

‘A charade of piety …’ Donald Trump at an evangelical Christian service in 2016. Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

If there was a dictator’s playbook, the Donald Trump administration would now be on the “Instrumentalise Religion” chapter. Last week, in what sounded like the launch of a US caliphate, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, reached for a biblical verse to defend his department’s policy of separating migrant parents from their children at the Mexican border, suggesting that God supports the government.

“I would cite you to the apostle Paul, and his clear and wise command in Romans 13 to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” Sessions said. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves. Consistent and fair application of the law is in itself a good and moral thing, and that protects the weak and protects the lawful.”  Continue reading “Trump is creating his American caliphate, and democracy has no defence”

Trump’s “unprecedented” history of pressuring officials

On the February 1, 2018, episode of Deadline: Washington on MSNBC, host Nicole Wallace listed the number of people publicly known to date to have been asked by President Trump for their loyalty to him.  We reproduce it below:

  • former FBI Director James Comey — asked for loyalty pledge
  • Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — asked ‘are you on my team?”
  • Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats — asked to publicly deny collusion evidence
  • NSA Director Mike Rogers — asked to publicly deny collusion evidence
  • former FBI Deputy Direction Andrew McCabe — asked who he voted for
  • current FBI Director Christopher Wray ‚ publicly pressured to fire McCabe

You can view the video segment here.

Trump just threatened to shut down news outlets critical of him. That’s what’s happened in Turkey.

The following article by Matt Gertz was posted on the Media Matters website October 11, 2017:

Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that one of its journalists, Ayla Albayrak, had been convicted of “engaging in terrorist propaganda” by a Turkish court over Albayrak’s reporting in the Journal on a Kurdish separatist party banned in that nation. The move was condemned by the Journal’s editor-in-chief, Gerard Baker, and press freedom advocates.

Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian government has closed down more than 150 media outlets in recent years and imprisoned at least 200 journalists, according to the Stockholm Center for Freedom. But the move to prosecute and imprison a reporter for a Western media outlet for terrorism is extremely unusual. When Turkey arrests such reporters, the country can usually expect vigorous protests from the outlet’s home government.   Continue reading “Trump just threatened to shut down news outlets critical of him. That’s what’s happened in Turkey.”