Disturbing developments in US, other nations
Americans are said to be more outspoken and assertive than most other people, but we did not expect it to reach a point where they would openly speaking out in public places against Trump cabinet members.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and her party were asked to leave a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, which refused to serve them. She later tweeted she was told by the owner of Red Hen to leave because she worked for President Trump and she said she politely left. The restaurant was then flooded with online comments, many praising the restaurant and some accusing it of discrimination.
Earlier, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nilsen was heckled by people repeatedly crying “Shame! Shame!” as she dined at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, DC. She had been reported as among the top defenders of Trump’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents to discourage asylum seekers escaping from repressive regimes and violence in South and Central America.
Trump’s migration policy has divided the nation as never before, with many leading Republican officials, party-mates of President Trump, openly criticizing it. News photos showed children as young as two and four years old crying their hearts out as Americans in uniform separated them from their mothers. Trump yielded to the pressure last week and ended the policy but thousands of children remain separated from their parents to this day.
The incidents involving Press Secretary Sanders and Homeland Security Secretary Nilsen probably resulted directly from the overwhelming public protest against Trump’s immigration policy, but there could be other factors contributing to the rising opposition.
Trump has started a “trade war” against nations with which the US suffers from trade imbalance, starting with a tariff on aluminum and steel imports which impacted on producing nations like Canada and many European states. Then he turned his attention to China and slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods imported into the US. After China retaliated with its own tariffs on US goods, Trump shot back with tariffs on another $200 billion in Chinese goods.
All the countries caught in the ongoing trade war are bound to suffer. It has caused considerable damage to American steel users, potato and soybean farmers, ranchers, brewers, and seafood businesses. This economic impact on the lives of ordinary Americans may be adding to a growing feeling of protest in the country.
The world continues to watch developments in the US, with Filipinos specially concerned because of our close relationship in the last hundred years and the millions of our countrymen now living in that country, either as citizens or as overseas workers. We hope Americans will be able to settle the problems they are facing today before they get out of hand and impact on the rest of the world, including our part of it.