Washington, Feb 6: Demonstrators gathered in cities across the US on Wednesday to protest the Trump administration’s early actions, decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Protesters in Philadelphia and at state capitols in California, Minnesota, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Indiana and beyond waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency; and Project 2025, a hard-right playbook for American government and society. “I’m appalled by democracy’s changes in the last, well, specifically two weeks – but it started a long time ago,” Margaret Wilmeth said at a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. “So I’m just trying to put a presence into resistance.” The protests were a result of a movement that has organized online under the hashtags #buildtheresistance and #50501, which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Websites and accounts across social media issued calls for action, with messages such as “reject fascism” and “defend our democracy.”
Trump goes from ‘America First’ to ‘America Everywhere’
Washington, Feb 6: President Donald Trump promised voters an administration that wouldn’t waste precious American lives and taxpayer treasure on far-off wars and nation building.
But just weeks into his second go-around in the White House, the Republican leader laid out plans to use American might to “take over” and reconstruct Gaza, threatened to reclaim US control of the Panama Canal and floated the idea that the US could buy Greenland from Denmark, which has shown no interest in parting with the island.
The rhetorical shift from America First to America Everywhere is leaving even some of his allies slack-jawed – and wondering if he’s really serious.
“The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians,” a flummoxed Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and Trump ally, posted Wednesday on social media. “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
Is Trump’s imperialist talk just meant to appear tough on the world stage? Is he merely trying to give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cover with far-right members of his governing coalition who oppose moving forward with the second phase of the ceasefire deal with Hamas? Is the Gaza takeover proposal a land grab by a president who sees the world through the prism of a New York real estate developer? Or is it, possibly, a bit of all of above? Whatever the answer, Trump’s play on Gaza has perplexed Washington – and the world – as they try to make sense of the president’s foreign policy doctrine. (AP)