Trump and the Cycle of Democracy Promotion

The Trump administration’s decision to welcome Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to Washington this week is being described as a shift away from previous administrations’ emphasis on human rights. Sisi, a former military chief, toppled a democratically elected government in 2013 and presided over the worst mass killing of protesters in modern Egyptian history. He has brutally suppressed political opposition ever since.

But it might be more accurate to describe the move as the latest phase in a cycle: U.S. governments—including those led by Barack Obama, George, Bush sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Cairo to declare that the days of America prioritizing stability over democracy in the Middle East were over, only to back off when the Iraq War deteriorated and Egypt’s authoritarian leader, Hosni Mubarak, presented himself as a “bulwark against radical Islam.” The Bush administration, Traub writes, ultimately stuck by its friend rather than its values. The Obama administration urged Mubarak to resign during the Arab Spring and temporarily froze some military aid to Egypt after Sisi came to power, only to it as conflict and terrorism spread in the Middle East.