Under Trump, U.S. No Longer Stands for Human Rights, Decency
Trump’s return marks a renewed assault on human rights, LGBTQ+ people and global allies
MEXICO CITY — Then-President Donald Trump on July 16, 2018, defended Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference that took place in Helsinki after they met. I watched it happen on live television while I was on assignment in Mexico City. This disgusting spectacle prompted me to write an op-ed about how the U.S. no longer stood for human rights around the world.
I am once again on assignment in Mexico City, 15 days after Trump returned to the White House. He is doing everything possible to ensure the U.S. will no longer stand for human rights — around the world and in our own country — and basic decency.
Trump’s executive orders have, among other things, threatened the lives of an untold number of LGBTQ+ people around the world who depend upon U.S. foreign aid to survive. These directives have systematically erased transgender, nonbinary and intersex Americans. Trump has also antagonized Mexico, Canada and other U.S. allies with his ridiculous tariff threats.
One may have naively thought that Trump would have shown an ounce of decency with his response to last week’s tragic midair collision near Reagan National Airport. Trump instead suggested, without evidence, that previous administrations’ diversity, equity and inclusion policies could have caused it.
I thankfully did not watch Trump the comments and defense of them. I did, however, have a very undiplomatic response when I read them while I was at a coffee shop near my hotel in Tijuana.
“Shut the fuck up,” I said out loud.
I wrote after Trump defended Putin in Helsinki that American exceptionalism, however flawed, “teaches us the U.S. is the land of opportunity where people can build a better life for themselves and for their families.”
“Trump has turned his back on these ideals,” I concluded. “He has also proven himself to be a danger, not only to his country but to the world as a whole.”
History is sadly repeating itself.
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