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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
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