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Heads Up! As Trump Tries to Recover from the Surrender in Helsinki, Expect Another Cynical Pivot to Attacking Immigrants

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Fresh off his historically disastrous summit in Helsinki, be ready for President Trump to try his favorite political maneuver – aiming to distract and divide us by whipping up fears over immigrants. Immigrant bashing is his central political strategy to divert attention from Helsinki, soaring healthcare costs, the Trump Tariff Tax, and declining wages.

According to Pili Tobar, Managing Director of America’s Voice, “Coming out of a few disastrous weeks for the administration, it’s only a matter of time until President Trump doubles down on his anti-immigrant onslaught in an attempt to divide us and distract from the Helsinki summit, soaring healthcare costs, declining wages, the incompetence and malevolence the administration has shown in the family separation crisis, and the fact that thousands of children remain separated from their parents.

“President Trump’s playbook is as predictable as it is cynical, distract from the administration’s harmful and dangerous actions by attacking immigrants and using fear mongering as a diversion. Except this time, when Trump tries to distract from increasing taxes for working people, elevating costs of education and healthcare, and the surrender in Helsinki, another self-created mess awaits. We have to stay focused to ensure that the thousands of kids who are still away from their parents get reunited and that we hold Republicans accountable for the damage they are inflicting on Americans of all walks life, by continuing to stand behind this administration and their harmful agenda.”

Below, we excerpt a Washington Post editorial that captures the continued cruelty and callous indifference on family separations that defines this administration. That’s the immigration story that matters, no matter what tweets and new rounds of attacks we see from President Trump in the coming hours and days.

Washington Post editorial,The White House’s policy on child separation: ‘Whatever’”:

“When the Trump administration, in May, embarked on its “zero tolerance” imbroglio, ensuring that toddlers, tweens and teens would be removed from their parents, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly was asked by NPR whether the policy might be heartless. “I wouldn’t put it quite that way,” Mr. Kelly replied soothingly. “The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.”

Whatever.

Now, as the government scrambles to comply with a judge’s order to reunite nearly 3,000 children with their parents by July 26, a sharper image has emerged of the cruelty to which those children were subjected. Notwithstanding Mr. Kelly’s assurances, the truth is that, for many children, detention without their parents is a dystopian detour into the pages of “Oliver Twist.”

Kindergartners and other small children prone to meltdowns have been repeatedly injected — presumably with tranquilizers — by staff at the shelters where they have been confined. Children live in terror of punishment, which is regularly threatened by staff, should hidden cameras record any misconduct.

Whatever.

…Now we know what Mr. Kelly meant by “whatever.” He meant that whatever neglect, whatever fear and whatever ill treatment to which children were subjected were the means by which the administration would justify its goal of deterring future migrants. Not surprisingly, most Americans — and a federal judge — have rejected Mr. Kelly’s callous view. But the damage, to children, their families and U.S. prestige, has been done — and continues to be inflicted on thousands of children who remain separated from their parents to this day.”