Vladimir Putin. “I hope he likes me.”
Kim Jong Un: “I’d be honored to meet him.”
Xi Jinping: “A great, respected leader.”
Add one more brutal dictator to President Trump’s little black bromance book.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte.
Raw Story reports:
Duterte has drawn criticism from international human rights monitors for his brutal drug war that has involved killing thousands of drug addicts. In fact, Duterte even recently encouraged unemployed Filipinos to make themselves useful by killing drug addicts.
“If you lose your job, I’ll give you one,” he told a group of workers last month. “Kill all the drug addicts.”
So he kills people. And we’re all angels or something?
“He’s been very very tough on that drug problem, but he has a massive drug problem,” Trump said.
Sure! It’s hard to be tougher on drug dealers and users than personally spattering their brains on the walls behind them.
Additionally, the president noted that Duterte is very popular with his people, despite all the international criticism he’s getting for encouraging vigilantes to murder drug addicts. In fact, one recent poll pegged Duterte’s approval rating at 78%, which is vastly higher than the approval ratings most American presidents receive.
“You know he’s very popular in the Philippines,” Trump said. “He has a very high approval rating in the Philippines.”
Simple metrics for a simple, simple man