Former Ambassador to Belgium: The US is Less Safe with Trump's Travel Ban
The U.S. government said Friday it would appeal a ruling by a Maryland judge that halted pieces of President Trump’s revised travel order. Earlier this week, two judges, including the one from Maryland, blocked the Trump administration’s directive, which temporarily restricts travel from six predominantly Muslim countries. Former U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Howard Gutman joined FOX Business to discuss why Trump’s immigration policies are hurting the U.S.
“If you look at who does the attacks it isn’t the refugee from 5 countries or 7 countries who slipped in unvetted, it is someone in our country…whose an American who grew up in Newark and went to Orlando and who needed an outlet and decided to hate the United States,” he told FOX Businesses’ Liz Claman.
Gutman believes Trump’s travel order will actually make the U.S. less safe because “it puts a target on the back of America.”
“The security system is far greater in Zaventem Airport than in Kennedy Airport or Dallas Airport or any airport or U.S facility, but also the best news for the Europeans is the hate got transferred from them to the America,” he said.
One person President Trump has criticized on immigration is German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he met at the White House on Friday to discuss the economy and international security.
While the president pressed the German Chancellor on her contributions to NATO, Gutman cautioned President Trump against taking credit for Germany’s willingness to increase its contributions to the international organization, also commenting the press conference “was a skit worthy of Saturday Night Live.”
“So she [Angela Merkel] stepped up and said we will reach the two percent mark by 2025. When I went to see Belgium and my co-ambassadors went to see their European counter parts they already committed to meeting their share by 2020 so as President Trump was smiling Chancellor Merkel just took a five year extension on getting to the two percent,” he said.