If you listen to Donald Trump, the US border is a sieve for rapists, narco-distributors and other criminals heading north to embellish the ultra-violent gangs that cater to south-of-the-border drug cartels. Like the very violent MS 13 Salvadoran gang referenced in the President’s State of the Union speech a few days ago. Forget that MS actually originated in Los Angeles, not El Salvador. That theme is constantly repeated by Trump as justification for both “the Wall” and his and the GOPs “let’s throw them all out of the United States” proposed immigration policies.
That rhetoric has continued and even accelerated as evidenced by Donald Trump’s own words at the recent West Virginia Republican retreat: “President Trump was holding forth with U.S. Homeland Security officials, complaining about immigrants who are in the country illegally and drugs flooding across the southern border and questioning the commitments of both Mexico and Colombia, which Tillerson plans to visit on Tuesday [2/6], to stop the traffic. Perhaps he should just cut off their foreign aid, the president groused.” Los Angeles Times, February 4th (more below).
But the United States and its gun laws are the great enabler of cartel firepower. With the illegal flow of American weapons – semi-automatic military assault weapons with large-capacity magazines are particularly popular – south across the border, cartels are better-armed and more powerful than ever. Of the hundreds of thousands of such weapons confiscated by Mexican authorities – and they claim they have only indicted 15% of that massive weapons stash – the vast majority were smuggled from the United States, particularly from the largely unregulated gun trade that is glaringly evident at local US gun shows, virtually all of them in the American Southwest.
To understand the magnitude of the problem, I’d like to cite this except from a 3/19/13 article from Fox News: “It is extremely difficult for Mexicans to buy a firearm legally in the country, even though the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected… There is only one gun store in the country, located in Mexico City. After the civil unrest of the 1960s, Mexico made reforms to its constitution and put limits on gun ownership and restricted the right to carry a firearm to law enforcement and federal officials.
“Other requirements on gun ownership are similar to those in the United States, such as an age limit on ownership –18 in Mexico, 21 in the U.S. – no prior criminal convictions and the mental capacity to operate a gun. Mexico, however, requires gun owners to obtain a one-year permit from the Secretariat of National Defense and also belong to a shooting club. ‘The fact that everyone is required to re-register their gun every year already creates a bureaucratic barrier in itself to owning a weapon,’ Carin Zissis, the editor-in-chief of the Americas Society/Council of the Americas online, told Fox News Latino.
“With over 50,000 gun retailers located on the U.S. side of the border, there have been multiple reports of weapons purchased by U.S. buyers ending up in the hands of Mexican drug cartel members… Two out of every three illegal firearms found in Mexico come from the United States, according to statistics released by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.”
But Trump’s harsh rhetoric also flies in the face of the innocents and ordinary non-citizen residents living in the United States. Refugees from natural disasters in El Salvador and Haiti or political/military horrors in places like the Sudan or Syria. Also DACA people brought illegally over the border as children by their parents, many of whom were so young at the time of their passage that they do not even remember life in their country of origin. Not so surprisingly, as the President’s “Norway” statement suggests, Trump’s ire is primarily reserved for people of color or those who are not Judeo-Christians. The KKK and other white supremacists are smiling, and Trump’s base with a huge white evangelical constituency are cheering him on. The impact of foreign policy is devastating, however.
Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, heads a federal agency that has been decimated by massive budget cuts and even greater firings, resignations and simple failures to make appointments as detailed in my February 3rd Pushing Us to an Unnecessary Brink blog. Just as the Secretary was to depart on a “let’s patch things up” mission to Latin America, Donald Trump once again cut the legs out from under his most senior diplomat with his West Virginia remarks noted above.
Because Trump has repeatedly contradicted Tillerson on numerous occasions, our Secretary of State has less credibility than any other such office-holder in American history. His statements are frequently ignored by the very heads of state with whom he is theoretically negotiating on behalf American interests. As the United States is currently in the process of renegotiating NAFTA, the emasculation of Rex Tillerson is particularly challenging. “So much for Tillerson’s weeklong goodwill tour of the region, as Trump’s words inevitably traveled south.
“‘The president’s comments were not helpful,’ said a senior State Department official who accompanied Tillerson, in rare acknowledgment of the messaging gulf between Trump and his secretary of State… It was the latest incident in which Trump has undercut Tillerson, America’s top diplomat, by announcing or simply tweeting policies — or insults — at inopportune moments. Last year, memorably, as Tillerson returned from delicate talks with China about cooperating to confront North Korea, Trump tweeted that Tillerson should ‘stop wasting your time’ with diplomacy on the matter.
“Amid Tillerson’s talks Friday [2/2] with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray and Canada’s Chrystia Freeland, Trump spoke at a federal facility in northern Virginia, near Washington, to a roundtable of border and customs agents about illegal immigration and drug trafficking… ‘And what are Mexico and Colombia and these other countries — what are they doing about it? Nothing,’ Trump said. When he was told the countries actually were close partners with the United States in policing efforts, Trump replied skeptically, ‘Do you think they’re really trying?’
“Speaking of the influx of illegal drugs, Trump said, ‘These countries are not our friends. You know, we think they’re our friends and we send them massive aid. And I won’t mention names right now, but I look at these countries, I look at the numbers we send them — we send them massive aid and they’re pouring drugs into our country and they’re laughing at us… I want to stop the aid,’ Trump added, ‘if they can’t stop drugs from coming in.’
“Diplomats have said that such harsh rhetoric from the president impedes the broader mission of Tillerson and other State Department envoys who seek to build relationships to further the U.S. agenda… At a news conference after the talks in Mexico City, Tillerson sidestepped a question about how the contradictions between what he and Trump say ultimately make his job more difficult.” LA Times.
Every American diplomatic failure, every Trump slap to the face of other countries, is a boost to the global ambitions of Russia and, more importantly, China. It’s almost as if when an American official departs a foreign capital that has been angered by Trump’s statements and policies, the next incoming flight is carrying a senior Chinese representative salving the wounds and replacing the United States as the relevant and most important power to that insulted country. I would not be shocked, as the Chinese navy grows in power and scope, if some Latin American country eventually exchanges favorable economic aid and trade benefits from China for the right for the Chinese to build a massive new naval base right next door to the good old USA.
On an overly-simplistic analysis, Donald Trump seems to cater to only two basic constituencies: big business and the base. When it comes to “money,” you can pretty much count on Trump policies to favor big business at the expense of any other constituency every time. His mantra is always “job creation through trickle-down economics.” Every other policy decision succumbs to the dictates of the base, a constituency that is profoundly pro-military (and military “show them” solutions) and deeply pro-white Christian values. Since foreign policy is not a “big money” issue, you can pretty much count on Trump to implement foreign policy predictated on what the base wants.
This practice should scare all of us. It cannot work. It cannot benefit the United States in the longer term. And it is clearly a path that weakens the United States and strengthens the power and influence of our enemies and those nations seeking to replace the United States as the leading force on the global stage. Experts are ignored, and uninformed zealots control. Uninformed policy decisions always produce a litany of disastrous unintended consequences.
I’m Peter Dekom, and as devastating as these policies hold for the long-term prosperity, influence and power of the United States, there isn’t the slightest evidence that this path will change as long as Trump is president… and no serious Republican believes it is possible to oppose Trump and survive the resulting ire of the base.
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