The United States has often embraced right wing dictators around the world under many Presidents since World War II, while still enunciating the concept of “human rights”.
Presidents have played the difficult game of speaking in favor of human rights and freedom, equality and justice, while often being forced to work with authoritarian leaders.
Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama went the furthest in their promotion of human rights, while having to accept some governments and leaders that were distasteful.
But now we have a President who fully embraces foreign dictators and has no issue with the violation of human rights, with this already evident in such nations as Egypt, Turkey, and the Philippines, and also praising how North Korean leader Kim Jong Un overcame opposition in a brutal way, terming Kim Jong Un as “a smart cookie”.
Also, Trump has, seemingly, developed a love affair with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, although trying recently to tone that down, due to suspicions that Trump was aided in his election victory by Russian intervention.
And Trump also seems to admire China’s leader, and in the past, praised the brutal Chinese crackdown at Tiananmen Square in June 1989, killing thousands of protesting Chinese, who wanted democracy.
Certainly, Trump has authoritarian tendencies and leanings, and praises the “strength” of dictators, and he is encouraging human rights violations in America through his Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, who reminds one of the era of George Wallace, the Alabama Governor who became infamous in the 1960s and 1970s in his struggles against the Civil Rights Movement.