Donald Trump is such a manipulator. He posted a tweet of a video showing President Barack Obama in front of the White House along with former vice president Joe Biden. What Trump did next was appalling.
Trump wrote a sarcastic “thank you” to his predecessor. POTUS not only cropped the video to contain just a very few words, he took it completely out of context:
‘President Obama, thank you for your great support – I have been saying this all along! ‘
President Obama, thank you for your great support – I have been saying this all along! pic.twitter.com/L506g9Aq4z
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2019
In the Rose Garden five years ago, Obama spoke to the issue, whereas, Trump gave a speech on all the networks and on cable television. There was another difference — 44 did not partially shut down the border.
The House was Republican-led and would not pass a bill for Obama. Conversely, the Democratic-led House has put forth several bills. Obama said:
‘The failure of House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad for our economy, and it’s bad for our future.’
Over 60,000 children arrived on the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied in 2014. That was quite a difference from Trump’s 4,000-strong “caravan,” according to NPR.
Trump gave a fear-mongering speech. On the other hand, Obama spoke to efforts to provide humanitarian aid to refugees who were fleeing the violence and bone-crushing poverty of Central America.
Director of the Migrants Rights and Justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission Michelle Brane said of Obama:
‘They made a lot of mistakes, but eventually they got some stuff right. They started out with sort of a deterrence approach, but realized fairly early on that this was a humanitarian situation.’
Officials with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said their agency cannot handle so many women and children. It was not designed to care for them. Two refugee children ages seven and eight died in CBP custody.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in the Democratic rebuttal to Trump’s speech to the nation:
‘The fact is the women and children at the border are not a security threat. They are a humanitarian challenge — a challenge that President Trump’s own cruel and counterproductive policies have only deepened.’
Brane credited the Obama administration for learning from its mistakes. Trump could have easily learned from Obama’s mistakes, too. Brane said:
‘The Trump administration has done basically the opposite. They took exactly what failed, and expanded on it.’
She noted that the Trump administration separated almost 3,000 children from their parents in a “zero tolerance” policy to provide a deterrent to other refugees. Obama only did it upon occasion. That was usually when the parent appeared unsuitable.
Trump’s network of shelters to house children traveling alone reached capacity at 15,000. It was only then that the White House changed its strict rules to vet the adult sponsors. That finally made it easier for children to live with family members waiting for them until they went to immigration court.
Bottom line, the biggest difference was that Obama is empathetic. Trump has no empathy.
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
