Just another week in Trump chaos
It was another chaos week and weekend.
The New York Times reports that a lawyer for the United States government said in federal court in Virginia on Friday that more than 100,000 visas had been revoked as part of President Trump’s policy halting travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries – a move a judge said was causing “chaos,” a lawyer for the plaintiff said.
While protesters have focused on the executive order stopping foreigners from entering the country, a State Department memo that was not initially released publicly went much further, canceling at least temporarily almost all visas from the seven countries. A federal judge on Sunday upheld the suspensions of the order for the time being.
The New York Times reported on Thursday that tens of thousands of these visas, for foreigners inside and outside the United States, had been revoked without any notice to the visa holders. Had any of them left the United States, they would have most likely lost the ability to return.
A State Department official provided a lower number, saying it was “fewer than 60,000.”
Also Friday, Trump took the first steps to loosen regulations on banks and other major financial companies that were put on notice by Congress and the Obama administration after the 2008 financial crisis.
It seems Donald Trump is indeed taking policy advice from the very Wall Street titans he had demonized during his campaign. Remember the establishment “swamp”?
After a White House meeting with the executives, Trump signed a directive calling for his administration to identify potential changes to provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act. A second directive he signed is expected to temporarily halt and eventually overhaul an Obama-era Labor Department rule that requires brokers to act in a client’s best interest, rather than seek the highest profits for themselves, when providing retirement advice.
Trump said his actions were intended to help both Wall Street and workers. He said easing constraints on banks enables them to lend to companies, which could then hire more workers.
Are you buying this? We aren’t either.
This photo provided by Budweiser shows a scene from the company’s commercial for Super Bowl 51. (Budweiser via AP)When art imitates life
The ad lasts only 60 seconds, but it singularly tells America’s 240-year-old story.
And on Super Bowl Sunday, that TV ad reached upward of 116 million viewers.
Titled “Born the Hard Way,” the lavishly produced ad shows a handsome young immigrant, arriving in 1857 America from Germany and being told, “You’re not wanted here! Go back home!”
Through the taunts, through a scary escape from a burning riverboat, through a cold, long walk in the wilderness to arrive in St. Louis, the young immigrant keeps his inspiration alive by writing and sketching in a journal about his life’s dream – to brew beer.
In a bar, a stranger tells the bartender to bring the young man a beer. The young immigrant says thank you, and opens his journal to a page showing a bottle with an oddly familiar label.
The stranger offers a handshake and introduces himself as Eberhard Anheuser. The immigrant takes his hand and introduces himself as Adolphus Busch.
Ad Age writes that the Budweiser ad, with its rousing pro-immigration theme, wasn’t meant to be political: the commercial was in the works before Trump’s immigration ban was announced. Of course, there was a year-long campaign prologue of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration prattle.
The ad is hard-hitting, and inspiring – in more ways than one.
In a news release from the brewer, Anheuser-Busch vice president Ricardo Marques says, “This commercial shows the start of Budweiser’s journey, and while it is set in the 1800s, it’s a story we believe will resonate with today’s entrepreneurial generation – those who continue to strive for their dreams.”
Yeah. But Budweiser’s description to ad executives about the ad they wanted – something to celebrate those who embody the American spirit – also resonates in our current political climate.
After all, we all have Adolphus Busches who star as the heroes of our American dream backgrounds.
Immigration is the American story.