The Trump regime has been privately preparing to expand Trump's Muslim travel ban according to documents obtained and reviewed by Buzzfeed News.
The documents, which include material specifically for distribution in the media, indicate that as many as seven additional countries could be added to the list those of with restrictions on travel.
The draft materials obtained by BuzzFeed News do not contain the names of the countries being considered, but the proclamation includes seven slots that contain descriptors for each nation and varied restrictions.
While the countries are not listed, the descriptions included do list some indicators. Several countries are listed as not providing the US with “identity information” and presenting a “risk” of “terrorist travel.” One country is an “important strategic partner in the global fight against terrorism” but nevertheless is failing in “identity management” issues. Another country does not “work with the United States on border and immigration security issues.” [...]
The draft presidential proclamation details how, after a review conducted by the Trump administration of the “identity management” and security protocols for 200 countries, the Department of Homeland Security recommended Trump place travel restrictions on countries in addition to the seven already banned, which include Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, North Korea, Yemen, and Somalia.
Given that we are now in an election year, I have a hunch that this will happen at a time of Trump's choosing and that time could coincide with one of this unhinged Nuremberg rallies.
In any case, Trump's existing Muslim ban and his upcoming expansion of it put us in a morally compromised position and give the Chinese, for example, all the more reason to tell us to mind our own business when we condemn their treatment of Muslim minorities. I would not necessarily say that Trump's Muslim travel ban is as bad as China's practice of placing Muslims in reeducation camps, but we're still measuring the exact extent of official state violations of civil and humans rights in both cases.
The Trump regime endlessly rails about global boogeymen like the Chinese and Iranians all while making us hardly better than they are. Our few remaining allies who still choose to side with us against the abuses of foreign powers have an increasingly long list of American behavior they could be asked to explain when they do so.
It will take the entire first term and longer for the next president to even begin to pick up the pieces of Trumpism.