Donald Trump – 91��Ƭ

Editorial: Trump Visits Pope Francis

Michelle Lang — Thu, 01 Jun 2017 18:29:51 +0000

Editorial By Monsignor William J. Linder
During his first foreign trip as president, Donald Trump met with Pope Francis, who he has publicly disagreed with on many issues.
It appeared to be a pleasant meeting. The pope isn’t going to pick a fight with him.
Though we don’t know exactly what they talked about since it was a private meeting, from news reports, I believe the three main topics were immigration, refugees and climate change.
When it comes to immigration, families should have rights. When I was growing up in West New York, one African-American family moved in. The priest told the congregation that the father had the right to take care of his family and therefore had the right to live there. Because of that, the community was accepting. I think that’s the same thing Pope Francis is saying. We need to make room for people who are seeking a better life. We have an obligation to them.
Immigration has made the country strong. Different cultures have left their mark in many ways, including with food. If we understand that, we can connect on other levels. I lived in Mexico for a summer. The people there were so good to me. They were very accepting.
The refugee issue is a matter of fairness. I’m sure the pope talked about the differences between how Christians and Muslims are treated as refugees. Trump’s executive orders limiting travel from several Muslim-majority countries have been blocked by federal appeals courts for illegally targeting Muslims. The pope probably told him we need to have respect for and welcome our brothers and sisters, regardless of religious affiliation.
With climate change, science tells us we’re causing global warming. We have an obligation to do something about it. Trump doesn’t agree with the science, but he’s not a scientist. It also interferes with his economic development plan of using coal, which might be faulty. Trump won the election, but not the argument.
If there’s one piece of advice Trump may take from Pope Francis, I think it would be to remain part of the Paris Agreement, the global action plan to limit global warming. But that’s definitely not a guarantee. The leader of the Catholic Church and the leader of the free world don’t seem to be on the same page about anything.

Editorial: Trump And The Media

Michelle Lang — Wed, 01 Mar 2017 19:16:41 +0000

Editorial By Monsignor William J. Linder
President Donald Trump is back at his old antics.
Roughly after a month on the job, the President held a campaign-style rally because he said he wanted to speak directly to the people with his unfiltered message. Two days earlier, President Trump held a press conference at the White House where he stood up and painted the American news media as being “out of control.”
Let’s be clear on this point. The news media is the one that’s acting “out of control”?
During the campaign, then candidate Trump spouted off incendiary comments and sparred with the media, which were two guaranteed ways to garner lots of coverage. Remember, for this former reality television show host, any coverage is good coverage.
That is except if you’re talking about damaging internal leaks.
President Trump railed against the intelligence community for leaking information that ultimately caused Gen. Michael Flynn to get the boot as national security advisor, and similarly harangued the news media for reporting on the details released.
High level leaks are a gravely serious issue and should be dealt with. Even more so is the fact that the president appears to be at war with his own government’s intelligence-gathering agencies by labeling their actions as criminal and illegal. But I am also disturbed by the fact that President Trump sat for two weeks on information that raised concerns of whether Flynn had in fact lied. Action forcing Flynn to resign only came after the leaks became public knowledge and were reported by the media.
President Trump certainly threw Vice President Pence out in the cold, when Pence had to read for himself in news reports that Flynn had misled him regarding communications with Russia’s ambassador.
The firing of Flynn and the intelligence leaks that prompted his sudden departure further highlight a disturbing theme that has become deeply woven into the Trump administration’s narrative: its relationship with Russia.
And that’s the rub. The sound and fury generated by the Trump administration thus far, by rabidly attacking media outlets, has only served as a distraction from much more serious issues at hand.
What Flynn said to the Russian ambassador is still under investigation by the House Intelligence Committee.