US: Second Trump Term a Threat to Rights in US, World
(Washington, DC) – Donald Trump’s second term as United States president poses a grave threat to human rights in the United States and the world, Human Rights Watch said today. These concerns reflect Trump’s rights-abusing record during his first term, his embrace of white supremacist supporters and ideology, the extreme antidemocratic and anti-rights policies proposed by think tanks led by former aides, and campaign promises, including to round up and deport millions of immigrants and retaliate against political opponents.
“Donald Trump has made no secret of his intent to violate the human rights of millions of people in the United States,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Independent institutions and civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, will need to do all we can to hold him and his administration accountable for abuses.”
During Trump’s first term as president, from 2017 to 2021, Human Rights Watch documented his record of rights abuses. These included policies and efforts to expel asylum seekers and separate families at the US-Mexico border, advance racist tropes against Black communities and other people of color, adopt policies that punish low-income families and deprive them of health care, and to fuel a violent insurrection to overthrow the results of a democratic election.
Trump’s pledges during his 2024 campaign raise greater cause for concern in a second term, both domestically and internationally. In 2023, he said he would not be a dictator “except for day one” in office. Trump has repeatedly praised autocrats such as Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. He has proposed policies that would weaken democratic institutions that protect fundamental human rights and would lessen checks on presidential authority. The threat of abusing the executive office is of even greater concern because of a recent US Supreme Court decision that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken in office.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/06/us-second-trump-term-threat-rights-us-world-0?