Communiqué
NPR Editor Shares Insights into Trump’s Border Issues and Other Trump Policies
< < Back toConfusion has been a feature of the Trump Administration’s policies toward immigration and especially the current border issues with migrants and the caravan from Honduras.
Philip Ewing, national security editor for National Public Radio (NPR), says the recent tear gassing of migrants at the southern border of the United States was a result of some of that confusion. He notes specifically that the gassing was administered by border law enforcement officers who allegedly felt threatened by oncoming migrants and not the U. S. Military.
That rationale, however, is tempered by pictures of mothers and children being gassed by U.S. authorities.
Ewing notes that the military troops ordered to the border by President Donald Trump have been primarily there in support roles – such as construction. According to Sec. of Defense James Mattis, many of the U.S. troops do not even have weapons with them as they are performing their duties.
The troops are there for support of other law enforcement units but the extent of their authority remains murky.
Ewing also describes how the current hardline by Trump on border issues and how his threatening to close the Southern Border plays to Trump’s political base. He notes that matters concerning building a border wall and other border tightening measures may be tied to potential government budgetary bills coming before Congress in December.
A partial government shut-down may be threatened by the President as a bargaining chit to get at least some funding for his border wall through the budgetary process.
Ewing also talks about actions by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and how the recent court filings noting that former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort violated the terms of his plea agreement may muddy upcoming legal actions.
Insight also is given by Ewing on Trump’s complicated relationship with his Intelligence agencies with respect to the Jamal Khashoggi murder by Saudi Arabian assailants and intelligence reports about Putin and Russia.
Finally, Ewing outlines what the average person should be expecting from the Trump Administration and the news in the next couple of months. He notes that the “sandblasting” by presidential Congressional Republican allies will be markedly diminished when the Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January.
We also can expect potential conflicts between the Executive branch and the Legislative and Judicial branches of government fighting for power and turf.