Donald Trump likes dictators and likes to be liked by them. After meeting Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi last week, Trump called Sisi “a fantastic guy,” gushing, “he took control of Egypt. And he really took control of it.” Trump approves of the unprecedented repression that followed Sisi’s taking power, which includes extra-judicial killings, repression of civil society organizations, detention of tens of thousands and disappearances of hundreds. At Monday’s debate Trump should be asked not only about his admiration for Sisi but also about how he would approach dissidents, lawyers and journalists imprisoned under the regimes he holds in high regard.
Not infrequently, American presidents must decide whether to confront foreign governments over the fate, sometimes even the life, of a dissident. The United States twice intervened to save the life of the South Korean dissident Kim Dae-jung while he was held by the dictatorship there, even though South Korea was an American ally. Three American presidents were involved: President Richard Nixon in 1973, and President Jimmy Carter and president-elect Ronald Reagan in 1980.
