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A6 NATION/WORLD East Oregonian Wednesday, August 21, 2019 Trump steadily fulfills goals on religious right wish list By DAVID CRARY Associated Press NEW YORK — When Donald Trump assumed the presidency, conservative reli- gious leaders drew up “wish lists” of steps they hoped he’d take to oppose abortion and rein in the LGBTQ-rights movement. With a flurry of recent actions, Trump’s administration is now win- ning their praise for aggres- sively fulfilling many of their goals. Mat Staver, president of the legal advocacy organi- zation Liberty Counsel, said Trump has fulfilled about 90% of the goals on a list that Staver and other conservative leaders compiled. “In the first two years of his administration, he’s achieved more than all of the presidents combined since Ronald Reagan,” Staver said. “He’s been the most pro-re- ligious freedom and pro-life president in modern history.” One of the most dramatic steps — hailed by conserva- tives and decried by liber- als — came this week when the Department of Health and Human Services imple- mented a new rule for the federal family planning pro- gram known as Title X. Planned Parenthood, long a target of religious conserva- tives because of its role as the leading U.S. abortion pro- vider, quit the program — walking away from tens of millions of dollars in grants — rather than comply with a new rule prohibiting clin- ics from referring women for abortions. Last week, the Labor Department proposed a rule that is expected to shield AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File People take part in an anti-abortion march in January as they stand on the steps of the Leg- islative building at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. With a flurry of recent actions, Trump’s ad- ministration is now winning the praise of conservative religious leaders for fulfilling many of their goals opposing abortion and reining in the LGBTQ-rights movement. federal contractors from discrimination complaints regarding hiring and firing decisions motivated by reli- gious beliefs. Critics say the rule, if implemented, would enable employers to dis- criminate against LGBTQ people. On Friday, the Justice Department filed a brief tell- ing the Supreme Court that federal law allows firing workers for being transgen- der. The brief is related to three cases that the high court will hear in its upcoming term related to LGBTQ dis- crimination in the workplace. Earlier this year, Health and Human Services issued a waiver allowing a state-con- tracted foster care agency in South Carolina to deny services to same-sex and non-Christian families. HHS also moved to revoke newly won health care discrimina- tion protections for transgen- der people. These and other actions aimed at curtailing abortion rights and LGBTQ rights have helped many conserva- tive Christians overlook other aspects of Trump’s presi- dency, such as his often-divi- sive rhetoric on Twitter and at rallies. The Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of the Southern Bap- tist megachurch First Baptist Dallas and a frequent guest at the White House, predicted that Trump would win more evangelical votes in 2020 than he did in 2016, when they helped provide his mar- gin of victory. “When he ran in 2016 and promised pro-life, pro-reli- gious freedom policies, most evangelicals who voted for him didn’t know whether he would or could fulfill those promises,” Jeffress said. “When they look back now, they see he checked off all of those goals. ... He’ll win by an even larger margin on basis of promises kept.” The same phenomenon being celebrated by religious conservatives is viewed with alarm by liberal activists. For the religious right, “Every day is Christmas,” said Rachel Laser, president & CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She worries that the mantra of “religious free- dom” is being used to protect some Americans while hurt- ing others. “It can’t be religious free- dom just for white evangeli- cal Christians — it has to be religious freedom for all of us,” she said. “We’re witness- ing divisiveness as Trump and his cronies and religious extremists across the coun- try continue to chip away at church-state separation.” The American Civil Lib- erties Union is among sev- eral organizations seeking to block some of the adminis- tration’s moves in court. “This is essentially the wish list of groups that have a very extreme and discrim- inatory perspective on what religious liberty means,” said Ian Thompson, the ACLU’s senior legislative representa- tive in Washington. “It’s important not to see any one of these policies in isolation but to see them as part of a coordinated effort by the administration across agencies,” Thompson said. He urged the Democrat- ic-controlled House of Rep- resentatives to go on record against the policies, and investigate those which seem particularly problematic. From both the right and left, activists noted that Trump’s numerous appoint- ments of federal judges have been welcomed by the religious right as a poten- tial long-term boost to its causes. “We are heartened by the appointment of constitution- alist judges, including two excellent Supreme Court jus- tices (Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh), and look for- ward to more such appoint- ments throughout the federal court system,” said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family. Peter Montgomery of People for the American Way, which is often crit- ical of religious conser- vative groups, said their Trump-supported agenda “is bad news for women in the U.S. and around the world, for LGBTQ people, and for the principle that taxpayer money should not be used to fund discrimination.” “Trump is advancing reli- gious right priorities in the short term through adminis- trative actions and in the long term through his appoint- ment of young, right-wing ideologues to lifetime posi- tions on the federal judi- ciary,” Montgomery added in an email. The Trump administra- tion actions represent a sharp turnaround from the presi- dency of Barack Obama, who supported abortion rights and same-sex marriage, man- dated that contraception be covered by the Affordable Care Act, enabled transgen- der people to serve openly in the military, and issued guid- ance to school districts that they should let transgender students use the bathrooms of their choice. Alliance Defending Free- dom is among the conser- vative legal groups that has litigated against numer- ous Obama-era initiatives and has welcomed Trump’s moves to reverse them. “The defense of life, free speech, and religious lib- erty should never be sub- ject to political and cultural whims,” said Kristen Wag- goner, an ADF senior vice president. “They are consti- tutional guarantees, and we are grateful that this admin- istration recognizes that real- ity and is taking serious steps to correct injustice and pro- tect all Americans.” BRIEFLY Any Jew voting Democratic is uninformed or disloyal AP Photo/Charles Krupa Weber grills are displayed at the Home Depot store in Londonderry, N.H. The Home Depot Inc. on Tuesday reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $3.48 billion. Execs starting to worry about tariffs’ effects on consumers By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AND JOSH BOAK AP Business Writers WASHINGTON — Americans continue to shop, vacation and buy cars at a brisk clip. But corporate America is starting to worry out loud that President Donald Trump’s tariffs will depress consumer spending and undermine the economy. Home Depot, the nation’s largest home improvement chain, said as much on Tues- day, when it reported high- er-than-expected profits for the quarter but cut its sales expectations for the year, cit- ing the tumbling price of lum- ber and the “potential impacts to the U.S. consumer aris- ing from recently announced tariffs.” That marked at least the second time in a week that retail executives raised the fear that consumers might pull back on spending. Last Wednesday, Macy’s warned that its customers have no appetite for higher prices. The department store chain has already raised prices on luggage, housewares and furniture because of the 25% import duties imposed in May. CEO Jeff Gennette said Macy’s is trying to offset the costs of looming tariffs on shoes and clothing. So far, consumer spending has insulated the U.S. econ- omy from the slump that is taking hold in such places as China and Germany. But Trump’s trade wars with Beijing and other key trad- ing partners have heightened anxieties. Dozens of American com- panies have pared their profit and sales expectations. The markets have swung wildly. Barometers of housing and manufacturing have slumped. Consumer confidence, though healthy on a historical level, dropped sharply this month. And that is especially troubling, because consumer spending accounts for roughly 70% of economic activity. That recent slump in con- sumer confidence has raised the odds of a U.S. recession in the next year to 45% from 40% in mid-July, according to analysts for JPMorgan Chase. If consumers are to keep fueling economic growth, they might need reassurance that Trump won’t escalate his trade wars. “If trade policy tensions ease and the labor mar- ket remains solid, we would likely see a rebound in con- sumer sentiment,” said Jesse Edgerton, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase. Unlike Macy’s, which, like all department stores, faces tumultuous changes in how and how much people shop, Home Depot is doing brisk business. Mortgage rates are hovering at historic lows, and the aisles of Home Depot are bustling with homeowners. But housing starts have tumbled 3.1% so far this year, according to the Cen- sus Bureau. This has reduced demand for lumber and caused wood prices to tumble roughly 20% over the past 12 months, according to govern- ment figures. In an otherwise solid period for overall retail sales, purchases at building material and garden supply stores have increased a meager 0.4% year- to-date, according to the Cen- sus Bureau. Sales at furniture stores have slumped 0.5%. The Trump administra- tion delayed most of the tar- iffs it planned to impose on Chinese products last week and dropped others altogether, responding to pressure from businesses and growing fears that a trade war is threatening the U.S. economy. The administration was also mindful that the latest round of tariffs would raise consumer prices during the crucial holiday shopping sea- son, so it delayed nearly 60% of them until Dec. 15. That eased the risk of an immediate shock but raised concerns about what comes next. WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says any Jewish people who vote Democratic show “either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.” Trump commented Tuesday amid his ongoing feud with Democratic con- gresswomen Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Trump has taken several steps favored by Israel, while the Muslim lawmakers are out- spoken critics of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Trump calls Omar a “disaster” for Jews and says he didn’t “buy” the tears Tlaib shed Monday as she discussed the situation. At Trump’s urging, Israel last week blocked the pair from entering the coun- try. Israel later agreed to a humanitar- ian visit for Tlaib to visit her grand- mother who lives in the West Bank. Tlaib declined. Recent polling shows that a majority of Jews identify as Democrats. 3 women sue Epstein’s estate, citing rape, other sex acts NEW YORK — Three women have filed lawsuits accusing Jeffrey Epstein of raping them or subjecting them to other forced sex acts — in one case while he was serving a Florida jail sentence that allowed him out for work during the day. The lawsuits in Manhattan federal court were filed Tuesday on behalf of women who remained anonymous. They sought unspecified damages. The lawsuits say two women were 17 and the third woman was 20 when they said they were sexually assaulted by Epstein. All said they were also coerced into giving Epstein sexual massages. One woman maintains Epstein forced her to marry another woman. A lawyer for Epstein declined to com- ment on the lawsuits. Epstein killed himself in his New York prison cell Aug. 10 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Italian premier resigns, blames deputy for political crisis ROME — Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte resigned Tuesday, blaming the col- lapse of his 14-month-old populist gov- ernment on his rebellious, anti-migrant Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who triggered a political crisis to try to force early elections. Addressing the Senate, Conte blasted Salvini for setting in motion a “dizzying spiral of political and financial instabil- ity” by essentially pulling the plug on the government. Salvini’s right-wing League party sought a no-confidence vote against Conte earlier this month, a stunningly bold move for the government’s junior coalition partner. Conte, a lawyer with no political experi- ence who was tapped to break a post-elec- tion stalemate last year, handed his resig- nation to President Sergio Mattarella at the presidential palace Tuesday night. Mattarella, who is head of state, requested that Conte and the rest of the government stay on in a caretaker role, while he works in the coming days to determine whether to call new elections. Mattarella will first see if another viable coalition can be cobbled together. — Associated Press Having A Yard Sale? Make sure to post it with the East Oregonian to get the word out there! $25 for 3 Days and unlimited words in black and white or $35 for all the works! Make sure to stop on by the East Oregonian building to also get your FREE YARD SALE SIGNS! ONLY WITH THE PURCHASE OF AD Chloe Boyett 541-276-2214 cboyett@eastoregonian.com 211 SE Byers Ave in Pendleton OR Rowan Treadwell 541-278-2670 rowan@eastoregonian.com
