Just SayingDonald Trump has freed the world of American pressure over human rights

Yonden Lhatoo suggests we all stand up to the US when it calls us out on human rights, now that a sitting president has confessed to America’s own grim record

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Thanks to Donald Trump, the countries being accused now by the US of human rights violations have plenty of ammunition to question America’s moral authority to chastise them. Photo: AP

Published: 5:45pm, 16 Feb 2017Updated: 8:51pm, 16 Feb 2017

Whatever we may say about US President Donald Trump, it’s clear that America’s tweeter-in-chief tells lies to the point of pathological compulsion. He just kills the truth.

But while we take him to task for all those “alternative facts” that he makes up, let’s also give him due credit for a jaw-dropping moment of honesty that hasn’t really been discussed and dissected as much as it should be for its implications.

In a recent interview with the right-wing Fox News Channel, Trump was grilled on his perplexing bromance with Russia’s president and reminded that Vladimir Putin was a “killer”.

Trump’s reply was a doozy: “There are a lot of killers. Got a lot of killers. What, do you think our country’s so innocent?”

When the host retorted that he did not “know of any government leaders that are killers”, Trump was quick to reference the Iraq war, saying: “Take a look at what we’ve done too. We’ve made a lot of mistakes.” He also slipped in another quick little lie about how he had opposed that war.

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Yonden Lhatoo suggests we all stand up to the US when it calls us out on human rights, now that a sitting president has confessed to America’s own grim record

Watch: Trump tells Fox News America isn’t so innocent

Yonden Lhatoo suggests we all stand up to the US when it calls us out on human rights, now that a sitting president has confessed to America’s own grim record