President Donald Trump expounded on his principles as a counterpoint to globalism in his rally speech in Melbourne, Florida on Saturday, Feb. 18.
“The nation state remains the best model for human happiness and the American nation remains the greatest symbol of liberty, of freedom, and justice on the face of God’s earth,” he said. “Erasing national borders does not make people safer or more prosperous. It undermines democracy and trades away prosperity.”
Trump’s slogan “America first” is in stark contrast with the globalist worldview of past presidents and underpins much of Trump’s agenda.
It reflects in his push to replace multinational pacts with bilateral agreements, that generally provides America greater control over negotiations; in his push for a strong borders; in his intent to reward companies that invest domestically (with lower taxes) and punish those that leave (with taxes); and in Trump’s defense of American values and culture.
“I want to be in a room filled with hard working American patriots, who love their country, who salute their flag, and who pray for a better future,” Trump said to the cheering crowd.
Trump defended his executive order that banned U.S. entry to travelers from seven “countries of concern” for 90 days, postponed intake of refugees for 120 days and Syrian refugees indefinitely.
He said the order was to protect Americans, giving the example of Europe’s struggle with massive refugee influx.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the AeroMod International hangar at Orlando Melbourne International Airport in Melbourne, Florida on Feb. 18, 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“You look at what’s happening in Germany. You look at what’s happening last night in Sweden,” Trump said. “They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.”
Trump’s comment was misunderstood by many media outlets as referring to some specific incident “last night in Sweden.”
He was actually referring to the Feb. 17 evening Fox News report about asylum seekers in Sweden. As part of the influx of immigrants from Syria, Sweden accepted 160,000 asylum seekers last year, but only 500 of them were able to find jobs, the report stated. Fox interviewed Ami Horowitz, a conservative-leaning film maker, who went to Sweden to see how is the country dealing with the influx of refugees.
Horowitz learned the country experienced a dramatic increase in crime, rape in particular, last year. But “the government has gone out of its way to try to cover up some of these problems,” he said. Specifically, “they would cover up, as far as they could,” whether the perpetrators were refugees or not.
Trump plans to issue a new executive order tailored to withstand legal challenges after his executive order barring travel from seven majority Muslim “countries of concern” was blocked by a federal judge.
He also presented alternatives in the form of offering humanitarian help to distressed nations like Syria, rather than importing their citizens.
“We all have heart, by the way, and what I want to do, I want to build safe zones in Syria and other places so they can stay there and live safely,” he said. “You know we do owe 20 trillion dollars, ok? So we’re going to have Gulf states pay for those safe zones. They have nothing but money. And we’re going to do it that way instead of taking massive numbers, tens of thousands of people, into our country.”
Trump hasn’t detailed what leverage he may consider to convince the Gulf states to cooperate.
