Trump’s hand of friendship to Philippine strongman

President Trump stunned human rights advocates
and some members of his administration this
week by inviting Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte—who is accused of orchestrating the
extrajudicial killings of more than 7,000 drug
suspects—to the White House. Trump made the
offer in “a very friendly” phone conversation, the
White House said, during which he and Duterte
discussed the North Korean nuclear threat,
among other issues. “The Philippines is very
important to me strategically and militarily,”
Trump told an interviewer, adding that Duterte
had been “very, very tough on that drug problem.” Two senior
administration officials said the State Department and the National
Security Council were caught off guard by Trump’s invite. Duterte,
who called former President Obama a “son of a whore” and has
claimed to have personally killed criminals while mayor of his hometown
of Davao, said he may be too “tied up” to visit the U.S.
Trump also told interviewers that he “would be honored” to meet
with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, calling him “a pretty
smart cookie” who has clung to power despite the efforts of “a lot
of people.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Trump’s warm words
for Kim and Duterte, as well his past praise for other strongmen,
including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian
President Vladimir Putin, were “very disturbing.”
U.S. presidents from both parties have always maintained warm
relations with brutal rulers of countries like Saudi Arabia and
Pakistan, said Yochi Dreazen in Vox.com. The
difference with Trump is that he seems to admire
dictators and would-be dictators more than he
does “democratically elected leaders with liberal
values.” His meeting with German Chancellor
Angela Merkel was frosty, his phone call with
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull
downright hostile. This is “good news for the
world’s autocrats; it’s terrible news for those
who care about human rights.”

Duterte “might well be mentally ill,” said Tom
Rogan in NationalReview.com, “but America
needs him on its side.” Beijing is building a series of artificial islands
in the East and South China Seas, with the aim of controlling the
vast trade flows through those waters and pushing out U.S. military
forces. Duterte is now deciding whether to join with the U.S. and
stand up to China’s territory grab, by defending the Philippines’
claim to part of the crucial Spratly Islands, or accept Chinese
control in return for a favorable trade deal. Do Duterte’s domestic
atrocities “override all other American concerns?” I don’t believe
so, and “Trump is right to engage him.”

If Duterte “crosses the threshold of the White House,” said Noah
Rothman in CommentaryMagazine.com, “it will forever taint
Trump’s presidency.” The images that have emerged from his drug
war are horrifying. Victims of death squads lie bloody in the streets,
tossed on garbage piles, or in morgues, “stacked on top of one
another like cordwood.” Of course, the U.S. must occasionally suffer
unsavory allies for the sake of larger objectives. “But expressing admiration
for and rehabilitating butchers like Duterte is indefensible.”