Donald Trump

  • Refugees and Displaced Persons
    How Does the U.S. Refugee System Work?
    The United States has long been a safe haven for refugees from around the world. President Biden is working to expand the country’s resettlement program after the Trump administration made sharp cuts.
  • United Nations
    Funding the United Nations: How Much Does the U.S. Pay?
    Many UN agencies, programs, and missions receive crucial funding from the United States. The Trump administration sharply reduced funding to some UN agencies, but President Biden has largely reversed those cuts.
  • North Korea
    What Would a Second Trump Administration Mean for North Korea?
    If Donald Trump were to win the 2024 presidential election, he would face at least three new realities that would shape his policy toward the Korean Peninsula.
  • Diplomacy and International Institutions
    Biden Visits Poland, Anxiety Over Oil Prices, and More
    Podcast
    U.S. President Joe Biden travels to Poland as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters a new phase, leaders from OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) and its allies convene virtually to discuss oil production, and international themes abound at the Ninety-Fourth Academy Awards.
  • United Nations
    Biden’s Tricky UN Message to a Troubled World
    Biden faces a dual challenge at the UN General Assembly. He must convince the world that the U.S. is committed to multilateralism while persuading the American public that the UN can be an indispensable institution.
  • United States
    Migrants at the U.S. Border: How Biden’s Approach Differs From Trump’s
    President Biden is adopting a different approach than his predecessor to an increasing number of migrants who are arriving at the southern border after fleeing hardship in their home countries.
  • United States
    Breaking Down Biden’s Immigration Actions Through Abbreviations
    Abbreviations are a fixture of U.S. immigration policy. CFR explains some of the most commonly referenced agencies, policies, and programs, and what President Biden is doing about them.
  • United States
    After Trump, Is American Democracy Doomed by Populism?
    The Trump presidency has demonstrated the appeal of populist authoritarianism to many Americans. The way the country responds to the attack on the U.S. Capitol will indicate how long this movement lasts.
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression
    Authoritarianism, Social Media, the United States, and Africa
    Nolan Quinn contributed to this post. Twitter and other social media platforms have suspended or restricted President Donald J. Trump's access, mostly because of his and his followers’ use of them to incite violence, though their stated, precise reasons vary from one to another. They are all private companies, and thus are subject to few restrictions [PDF] on what content they choose to moderate or remove. Mainstream American opinion is outraged over the assault on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 6 and many Americans are incensed by related efforts to suborn the Constitution in blocking the certification of President-Elect Joseph Biden’s electoral victory. Barring the president from social media platforms has not been seen as an infringement on his constitutional right to free speech. The legal argument runs that companies are free to enforce their own standards and policies regarding the content they host. Further, President Trump remains free to make his views known by the myriad other means of mass communication that exist in the United States such as the press, television, radio, and other social media sites. Polling data shows [PDF] that a majority of Americans do indeed favor increased regulation of social media. But reactions to the moves by Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and others to limit Trump’s social media access have followed a familiar partisan split. An ongoing debate about how much governments should regulate social media and what the boundaries are (or should be) between free speech and incitement to hatred and violence has been made more pressing by the events of January 6. This same debate is underway in sub-Saharan Africa, where social media is of growing importance and other types of media are weak or even absent. In some states trending toward authoritarianism or worse—Uganda, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, for example—regimes seek to limit social media to enhance their power by muzzling the opposition. But in others, especially those riven by ethnic and religious conflict, there is legitimate concern that media, now including social media, are a means to incite violence.  Nigeria is a case in point. The country is besieged by an Islamist revolt in the northeast, conflict over land and water in the middle of the country that often acquires an ethnic and religious coloration, and a low-level insurrection in the oil patch. The government is weak and commands little popular support. Under these circumstances, Nigeria is ripe for social media incitement to violence. Weak African governments are often heavy-handed and resort to draconian punishments which are difficult to carry out in practice; their responses to incendiary social media posts have been no different. In Nigeria, the government has introduced legislation to regulate social media that includes the death penalty for certain types of violations. Human rights organizations, many of which are suspicious the administration of Muhammadu Buhari is moving towards authoritarianism, see the legislation as infringing on free speech and stifling the ability to criticize the government. In Nigeria, as elsewhere in Africa, while social media is strong, more conventional media is less so. Hence restrictions on access to social media would, indeed, impede the flow of news and information to a greater extent than in the United States. Though it remains to be seen, major social media platforms’ barring of Donald Trump is likely to be cited in the Nigerian debate by those that favor the proposed legislation. In commentary by outside friends of Nigeria, it will be important not to impose on Nigeria the circumstances of the United States, which are not necessarily parallel.
  • Politics and Government
    Donald Trump’s Costly Legacy
    History will judge the Trump presidency to have been a consequential one, but more for its destructive effects than for its achievements.
  • Transition 2021
    Transition 2021: A Divisive and Damaging Presidency Nears Its End
    Each Friday, I look at what is happening in President-Elect Joe Biden’s transition to the White House. This week: The mob that stormed the Capitol Building this week highlighted how Donald Trump’s presidency has left the United States worse off than when he started.